What an odd time to be a fundamentalist about adaptation and natural selection - when each major subdiscipline of evolutionary biology has been discovering other mechanisms as adjuncts to selection's centrality. Stephen Jay Gould More Quotes by Stephen Jay Gould More Quotes From Stephen Jay Gould God was there when it happened. We were not there.... Therefore, we are completely limited to what God has seen fit to tell us, and this information is in His written Word. Stephen Jay Gould fit information scary Not since the Lord himself showed his stuff to Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones had anyone brought such grace and skill to the reconstruction of animals from disarticulated skeletons. Charles R. Knight, most celebrated of artists in the reanimation of fossils, painted all the canonical figures of dinosaurs that fire our fear and imagination to this day. Stephen Jay Gould artist animal science Details are all that matters; God dwells in these and you never get to see Him if you don't struggle to get them right. Stephen Jay Gould details struggle matter If I have any insight at all to contribute it is this: find out what you are really good at and stick to it. Stephen Jay Gould talent insight sticks Surely the mitochondrion that first entered another cell was not thinking about the future benefits of cooperation and integration; it was merely trying to make its own living in a tough Darwinian world Stephen Jay Gould future science thinking Our current drug crisis is a tragedy born of a phony system of classification. For reasons that are little more than accidents of history, we have divided a group of nonfood substances into two categories: items purchasable for supposed pleasure (such as alcohol), and illicit drugs. Stephen Jay Gould drug alcohol two History does include aspects of directionality, and the present range of causes and phenomena does not exhaust the realm of past possibilities. Stephen Jay Gould causes history past Theory-free science makes about as much sense as value-free politics. Stephen Jay Gould values statistics theory All science is intelligent inference; excessive literalism is delusion, not a humble bowing to evidence. Stephen Jay Gould statistics intelligent humble Some beliefs may be subject to such instant, brutal and unambiguous rejection. For example: no left-coiling periwinkle has ever been found among millions of snails examined. If I happen to find one during my walk on Nobska beach tomorrow morning, a century of well nurtured negative evidence will collapse in an instant. Stephen Jay Gould morning beach science Skepticism's bad rap arises from the impression that, however necessary the activity, it can only be regarded as a negative removal of false claims. Not so... Proper debunking is done in the interest of an alternate model of explanation, not as a nihilistic exercise. The alternate model is rationality itself, tied to moral decency--the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known. Stephen Jay Gould rap powerful exercise The more important the subject and the closer it cuts to the bone of our hopes and needs, the more we are likely to err in establishing a framework for analysis. Stephen Jay Gould cutting important thinking Theory and fact are equally strong and utterly interdependent; one has no meaning without the other. We need theory to organize and interpret facts, even to know what we can or might observe. And we need facts to validate theories and give them substance. Stephen Jay Gould strong giving science In the great debates of early-nineteenth century geology, catastrophists followed the stereotypical method of objective science-empirical literalism. They believed what they saw, interpolated nothing, and read the record of the rocks directly. Stephen Jay Gould records rocks science What's important is that all human knowledge be made available to all intelligent people who want to learn it. Stephen Jay Gould intelligent reading people Why, then, do I continue to claim that creationism isn't science? Simply because these relatively few statements have been tested and conclusively refuted. Stephen Jay Gould creation evolution claims The fundamentalists, by 'knowing' the answers before they start, and then forcing nature into the straitjacket of their discredited preconceptions, lie outside the domain of science - or any honest intellectual inquiry. Stephen Jay Gould intellectual knowing lying In what I like to call the Great Asymmetry, every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoted and invisible. Stephen Jay Gould evil kindness positive Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information; it is a creative human activity. Stephen Jay Gould heartless information creative We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes—one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximum freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way. Stephen Jay Gould offering atheist interesting
