Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history

Frank Eltman, 04/27/12

NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Leakey predicts skepticism over evolution will soon be history.

Not that the avowed atheist has any doubts himself.

Sometime in the next 15 to 30 years, the Kenyan-born paleoanthropologist expects scientific discoveries will have accelerated to the point that "even the skeptics can accept it."

"If you get to the stage where you can persuade people on the evidence, that it's solid, that we are all African, that color is superficial, that stages of development of culture are all interactive," Leakey says, "then I think we have a chance of a world that will respond better to global challenges."

Leakey, a professor at Stony Brook University on Long Island, recently spent several weeks in New York promoting the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya. The institute, where Leakey spends most of his time, welcomes researchers and scientists from around the world dedicated to unearthing the origins of mankind in an area rich with fossils.

His friend, Paul Simon, performed at a May 2 fundraiser for the institute in Manhattan that collected more than $2 million. A National Geographic documentary on his work at Turkana aired this month on public television.

Now 67, Leakey is the son of the late Louis and Mary Leakey and conducts research with his wife, Meave, and daughter, Louise. The family claims to have unearthed "much of the existing fossil evidence for human evolution."

On the eve of his return to Africa earlier this week, Leakey spoke to The Associated Press in New York City about the past and the future.

"If you look back, the thing that strikes you, if you've got any sensitivity, is that extinction is the most common phenomena," Leakey says. "Extinction is always driven by environmental change. Environmental change is always driven by climate change. Man accelerated, if not created, planet change phenomena; I think we have to recognize that the future is by no means a very rosy one."

Any hope for mankind's future, he insists, rests on accepting existing scientific evidence of its past.

"If we're spreading out across the world from centers like Europe and America that evolution is nonsense and science is nonsense, how do you combat new pathogens, how do you combat new strains of disease that are evolving in the environment?" he asked.

"If you don't like the word evolution, I don't care what you call it, but life has changed. You can lay out all the fossils that have been collected and establish lineages that even a fool could work up. So the question is why, how does this happen? It's not covered by Genesis. There's no explanation for this change going back 500 million years in any book I've read from the lips of any God."

Leakey insists he has no animosity toward religion.

"If you tell me, well, people really need a faith ... I understand that," he said.

"I see no reason why you shouldn't go through your life thinking if you're a good citizen, you'll get a better future in the afterlife ...."

Leakey began his work searching for fossils in the mid-1960s. His team unearthed a nearly complete 1.6-million-year-old skeleton in 1984 that became known as "Turkana Boy," the first known early human with long legs, short arms and a tall stature.

In the late 1980s, Leakey began a career in government service in Kenya, heading the Kenya Wildlife Service. He led the quest to protect elephants from poachers who were killing the animals at an alarming rate in order to harvest their valuable ivory tusks. He gathered 12 tons of confiscated ivory in Nairobi National Park and set it afire in a 1989 demonstration that attracted worldwide headlines.

In 1993, Leakey crashed a small propeller-driven plane; his lower legs were later amputated and he now gets around on artificial limbs. There were suspicions the plane had been sabotaged by his political enemies, but it was never proven.

About a decade ago, he visited Stony Brook University on eastern Long Island, a part of the State University of New York, as a guest lecturer. Then-President Shirley Strum Kenny began lobbying Leakey to join the faculty. It was a process that took about two years; he relented after returning to the campus to accept an honorary degree.

Kenny convinced him that he could remain in Kenya most of the time, where Stony Brook anthropology students could visit and learn about his work. And the college founded in 1957 would benefit from the gravitas of such a noted professor on its faculty.

"It was much easier to work with a new university that didn't have a 200-year-old image where it was so set in its ways like some of the Ivy League schools that you couldn't really change what they did and what they thought," he said.

Earlier this month, Paul Simon performed at a benefit dinner for the Turkana Basin Institute. IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond and his wife, Peggy Bonapace Gelfond, and billionaire hedge fund investor Jim Simons and his wife, Marilyn, were among those attending the exclusive show in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.

Simon agreed to allow his music to be performed on the National Geographic documentary airing on PBS and donated an autographed guitar at the fundraiser that sold for nearly $20,000.

Leakey, who clearly cherishes investigating the past, is less optimistic about the future.

"We may be on the cusp of some very real disasters that have nothing to do with whether the elephant survives, or a cheetah survives, but if we survive."

http://news.yahoo.com/scientist-evolution-debate-soon-history-155252505.html

-- 我第一次知道Professor Leakey的大名是讀了他的 The Making of Mankind (1981)。這本書加深了我對考古人類學、文化人類學的興趣，以及引起我日後在相關領域(如演化論、基因學、和文化研究)的進一步閱讀。轉貼此文，以誌Professor Leakey對我的啟發和影響。

Four-legged Creature's Footprints Force Evolution Rethink

Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor, LiveScience.com

Four-legged creatures were mucking around a muddy basin in what is now Poland about 397 million years ago. And they left behind distinctive footprints, which have turned back the clock on the evolution of these landlubbers.

Scientists discovered the fossilized prints, which included various trackways and isolated prints, in the Holy Cross Mountains in southeastern Poland. Analyses suggest most if not all of them came from different tetrapod species - which are four-legged animals that had backbones, such as amphibians - with some possibly belonging to juveniles and adults of the same species.

The land creatures likely had bodies shaped somewhat like crocodiles, with fin-like tails and stumpy legs. And some of them were pretty big, reaching up to about 10 feet (3 meters) in length, the researchers said.

The discovery helps to refine the timing of the transition from our fishy ancestors to land creatures, which until now was thought to have occurred about 380 million years ago or so. The new discoveries show the four-leggers were stomping around millions of years earlier than had been estimated based on fossils. Until now, the earliest complete evidence for a four-limbed animal with digits came from Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, which date back to between 374 million and 359 million years ago.

"We didn't know they existed at this point, and we would not have expected to have found them in this environment," study researcher Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University in Sweden said in a telephone interview.

Since scientists have used modern amphibians and such as models for the earliest tetrapods, some have assumed the earliest four-limbed creatures emerged from a freshwater environment, Ahlberg said.

Not so, according to the new prints.

"It seems like it was a very extensive muddy basin, marine basin, that was very shallow and very wide, hundreds of kilometers wide," said study scientist Marek Narkiewicz of the Polish Geological Institute, adding that the basin likely dried out every few years or so.

That drying out may have been an evolutionary boost needed to get fishy animals up onto the land, he speculated. "When we have an animal that's adjusted to swim and then it's left stranded during desiccation, during drying out, and if it doesn't have the ability to walk then of course it's death," Narkiewicz told LiveScience.

The animals were likely adept swimmers and walkers, Ahlberg said. "They're trying their terrestrial skills out in the intertidal zone, and it's only later that we find they are moving onto the land proper," Ahlberg said.

The testing ground was likely intertidal, with ebbs and flows on a daily basis. So when the tide came in, the animals would have swam around and when the water receded to expose mud banks, like the one where the prints were found, the animals would have easily snagged any food that washed up, Ahlberg said.

• Fish Fingers: Your Digits Used to Be Fins 
• Greatest Mysteries: What Drives Evolution? 
• Top 10 Useless Limbs (and Other Vestigial Organs)

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100106/sc_livescience/fourleggedcreaturesfootprintsforceevolutionrethink;_ylt=AurKVU6PeoOhhohfpqbhmxIbr7sF

07/02/2007 (星期一)聯合報的紐約時報專欄有幾篇討論演化論最近發展的文章

其中一個重點是當前的演化論已不能和達爾文的演化論同日而語

這是我用"當代演化論"而不用"演化論"的原因

其次 演化論並不保證"進步"

這是我用"演化論"而不用"進化論"的原因

07/02/2007 (星期二)有其中一篇中譯

雖然譯文水準有差(如將drift譯成"漂變")

仍可參考

引述：『如果李洪志先生可以毫無根據的說演化論"漏洞百出"我當然可以"合理懷疑"他胡說八道是基於某種原因另一個可能就是或許他有神經病了』

 *胡先生，請你先了解李老師在講什麼，有沒有道理，再發表看法。千萬不要流於意識之爭。

另外，罵人神經病，其實對你自己是很不好的。李老師指出進化論的漏洞，也沒罵達爾文吧！

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………氣功是史前文化

   甚麼是氣功？很多氣功師都在講，我講的和他們講的可不一樣。很多氣功師是在那一個層次中講的，我是在更高層次上講對氣功的認識，和他們認識的截然不一樣。有的氣功師講：氣功在我國有二千年的歷史；也有的人講有三千年的歷史；有的人講有五千年歷史，和我們中華民族文明歷史差不多少；也有人講，從出土文物中看，有七千年歷史，遠遠超出我們中華民族文明歷史。但是不管怎樣去認識，都沒有超出人類的文明歷史太多。按照達爾文進化論，人類從水生植物到水生動物；然後爬上陸地；又爬到樹上；再下到地上成為猿人；最後進化到有文化、有思想的現代人類來推算，人類真正出現文明也沒有超過一萬年。再往前推，連結繩記事都沒有。那就是圍着樹葉，吃着生肉；再往前可能連火都不會用，完全是那種野人，那種原始人。

　　可是我們卻發現一個問題，在世界許多地方留下了許許多多的文明古迹，都遠遠的超出我們人類的文明歷史。這些古迹，從工藝角度看，都有很高的工藝水平；從藝術水平來看，相當高超，現代人簡直都是在模仿古人的藝術，有很高的欣賞價值。可是它卻是十幾萬年前，幾十萬年前，幾百萬年前，甚至於上億年前留下來的。大家想一想，這不是在和今天的歷史開玩笑嗎？也沒甚麼可開玩笑的，因為人類也是在不斷的完善着自己，不斷的在重新認識着自己，社會就是這樣發展的，開始的認識不一定是絕對正確的。

　　可能有許多人聽說過「史前文化」，也叫「史前文明」，我們就講那個史前文明。在地球上有亞洲、歐洲、南美、北美、大洋洲、非洲和南極洲，地質學家把它們統稱為「大陸板塊」。大陸板塊形成到今天為止，已經有幾千萬年的歷史了。也就是說，有許多陸地是從海底升上來的，也有許多陸地沉積到海底去了，穩定下來到今天這個狀態已有幾千萬年的歷史了。可是在許多大洋底下，卻發現了一些高大的古代建築，這些建築物雕塑得非常精美，不是我們現在人類的文化遺產，那麼，它肯定是沉積到海底之前建造的。那麼幾千萬年前是誰創造了這些文明呢？那時候，我們人類連猴子還不是，怎麼會創造出這麼高智慧的東西？在世界上，考古學家發現了一種生物，叫「三葉蟲」，它是六億年到二億六千萬年前的產物，到二億六千萬年以後，這種生物就沒有了。一個美國科學家發現了一塊三葉蟲的化石，上面同時還有一個人的腳印，是穿着鞋踩上去的，清清楚楚印在上面。這不是在和歷史學家開玩笑嗎？按着達爾文的進化論，二億六千萬年前怎麼會有人呢？

　　在秘魯國立大學博物館裏有塊石頭，石頭上刻着一個人像，據考查這個人像是三萬年前刻上去的。可是，這個人像卻穿着衣服，戴着帽子，穿着鞋，手裏還拿着一個望遠鏡在觀察天體。三萬年前的人，怎麼會織布穿衣呢？更不可思議的是，他還拿着望遠鏡觀察天體，還有一定的天文知識。我們一直認為歐洲人伽利略發明的望遠鏡，到現在不過才三百多年的歷史，可三萬年前是誰發明了這個望遠鏡呢？還有許許多多不解之謎。如法國、南非、阿爾卑斯山有許多岩洞的石板壁畫，刻得十分逼真，活靈活現。刻上去的人，非常精美，還塗了一種礦物質顏料。可是，這些人都是現代人的裝束，有點像西服，穿着緊腿褲。有的拿着煙斗一樣的東西，有的拿着文明棍，戴着帽子。幾十萬年前的猴子，怎麼能有這麼高的藝術水平呢？

　　再說遠一點的，非洲有個加蓬共和國有鈾礦石，這個國家比較落後，自己不能夠提煉鈾，把它出口到先進國家。一九七二年，法國一家工廠進口了這種鈾礦石。經過化驗發現這種鈾礦石都是被提煉過、利用過的。覺得很奇怪，就派出科技人員去考察，許多國家的科學家都去考察。最後證實這個鈾礦是個大型核反應堆，而且佈局非常合理，我們現在的人都不可能創造出來的。那麼，甚麼時候建成的呢？是二十億年前，它運轉了五十萬年。這簡直是天文數字，按照達爾文進化論根本解釋不了，這些事情非常多。現在科技界發現的東西足以改變我們今天的教科書了。人類固有的舊觀念形成一套工作、思維方法後，很難接受新的認識。真理出現了也不敢去接受它，本能的產生一種排斥。由於傳統觀念的影響，現在沒有人去系統的整理這些東西，所以人的觀念老是跟不上發展，你一談到這些東西，雖然它沒有普及出來，已經被發現了，可有人就說是迷信，接受不了。

　　國外許多大膽的科學家已經公開承認它是一種史前文化，是我們人類本次文明以前的文明，就是在我們這次文明以前還存在着文明時期，而且還不止一次。從出土文物看，都不是一個文明時期的產物。所以認為人類多次文明遭到毀滅性的打擊之後，只有少數人活下來了，過着原始生活，又逐漸的繁衍出新的人類，進入新的文明。然後又走向毀滅，再繁衍出新的人類，它就是經過不同的這樣一個個周期變化的。物理學家講，物質運動是有規律的，我們整個宇宙的變化也是有規律的。

　　我們地球的運動，在這浩瀚的宇宙當中，在銀河系運轉當中，不可能是一帆風順的，很可能就碰到哪個星球上，或發生了其它問題，造成了很大的災難。站在我們功能的角度上去看，就是那麼安排的。有一次我仔細的查了一查，發現人類有八十一次完全處於毀滅狀態，只有少數人活了下來，遺留下原來的一點史前文明，進入了下一個時期，過着原始生活。人類繁衍得多了，最後又出現了文明。經過八十一次這樣周期的變化，我這還是沒查到頭。中國人講天時、地利、人和。不同的天象變化，不同的天時，會給常人社會帶來不同的社會狀態。用物理學講物質運動是有規律的，宇宙的運動也是一樣。

　　前面講的史前文化主要是告訴大家：氣功也不是我們今天人類發明出來的，也是經過相當久遠年代遺留下來的，也是一種史前文化。在經書中我們也可以找到一些論述。釋迦牟尼當時講過，他在多少億劫之前就修成得道了。一劫是多少年啊？一劫就是多少億年，這麼龐大的數字，簡直不可思議。如果是真的話，這不和人類的歷史、整個地球的變化相吻合了嗎？而且釋迦牟尼還講過，在他前面還有原始六佛存在，他還有師父等等，都是多少億劫之前修煉得道的。如果這些事情都是真的話，那麼我們今天在社會上所傳的那些真正的正統功法、真傳功法，是不是就有這樣的修煉方法？要叫我回答，當然是肯定的，可是不多見。現在假氣功、偽氣功、帶有附體的那種人，亂編一些東西騙人，超過真正的氣功許多倍，真假難辨。真正的氣功不太容易辨別，也不太容易找到的。

　　其實不只是氣功是久遠年代留下來的，太極、河圖、洛書、周易、八卦等等，都是史前遺留下來的。所以我們今天站在常人的角度去研究它，去認識它，怎麼也研究不明白的。站在常人這個層次、這個角度、這個思想境界中，理解不了真正的東西。

…………………………………………………………………………………………

恭錄自《轉法輪》

如果李洪志先生可以毫無根據的說演化論"漏洞百出"

我當然可以"合理懷疑"他胡說八道是基於某種原因

另一個可能就是或許他有神經病了

或者我們可以打個交道

如果李先生收回他對演化論毫無根據的批評

或法輪功所有網站都撤回他/她們對演化論毫無根據的攻擊

我就刪去那段文字

您好

謝謝您提供的留言訊息，近日因工廠搬遷，回覆稍晚，請諒。

您說：如果你看明慧網

請上去搜尋"進化論"

再告訴我法輪功不攻擊"進化論"

覆：1.“法輪功”是由李老師所創，功法本身的理論全部都寫在李老師的書中。這些書是針對我們修煉中的學員所講所寫的，目的是指導我們修煉。絕非是在大庭廣眾下，公開的對一般不修煉的人所講。所以若有涉及到其它理論的地方，都不該被您視為所謂的“攻擊”。

尤其是在人類“生命的起源”這個問題上，各種正統的修煉法門中，早就都提出過人的生命是由神所創造的，而且還有前世今生的輪迴現象存在。所以在“生命的起源”這個問題上，李老師在為學員們講解時，免不了會涉及到“進化論”。至於李老師指出“進化論”的漏洞，道理對不對，學員們相不相信，那是李老師與學員們之間的事。李老師也沒有硬性規定學員們都要相信他呀！

若是您覺得李老師有哪一段話是在公開攻擊“進化論”，在下建議您不妨提出來，我願意提供個人的体會觀點和您交流、交流。

2. 明慧網與其他的相關網站，皆是由法輪功學員所辦。這些網站提供了全世界各地學員心得交流的平台。然而學員們有各自不同的社會背景和專長，所發表的文章內容也非常廣泛。無論他們所講的是天文或地理、藝術或文學、科學或是信仰…等，那都是他們個人的觀點，絕不能視為是法輪功本身的內涵與李老師的主張。

就像敝人對您所做的回應一樣，無論是何種觀點，也都只代表我個人的體會，不能代表法輪功和李老師的立場，僅供您參考！

綜觀以上二點，希望您不要再錯把法輪功學員發表的文章，當成是李老師的“法輪功”了！謝謝啊 ~

祝晚安

您好
我一再說過李老師在『講法』中，是針對大法修煉中的學員講解問題，而不是對外界或科學界發表評論。只要學員大家明白其中的意思，又何需要求李老師一定要以何種規格、規則、或程序去講解問題呢！

您說：李洪志先生根本不懂「演化論」。他有什麼資格說「演化論『漏洞百出』」？

那麼您對李老師了解多少呢？您又有什麼資格說李老師講的不對呢？

您說：從我的「道德觀」來看，如果故意在知識領域「胡說八道」，不是有神經病，就是「品德低劣」。

請問您在何種『知識』領域裡的報刊媒體或雜誌中，看到過李老師發表對何種『知識』的評論呢？(不包括中共文字打手惡意攻擊李老師的文宣)

引述： 你的第四點是「胡說八道」。不過，難道你沒有聽過「複製羊」、「複製牛」、「複製貓」等等？我建議你多花點時間看看科學新知報導。孔子說，「思而不學則殆」。我想同樣的道理也適用於「修煉」吧。

請問：複製羊是完全按照『演化論』的理論，從原始環境一步步，經過不同物種的演化而成的嗎？

謝謝您近日來的回應。
祝晚安

如果你同意方舟子先生/小姐所引用的李洪志先生的話大致是李先生的意思，我的評論是：

1.   李洪志先生根本不懂「演化論」。他有什麼資格說「演化論『漏洞百出』」？如果你從這段話看不出李先生根本不懂「演化論」，你又有什麼資格「『討論』演化論」？在知識領域，「討論」或「批駁」都有嚴格的規格、規則、或程序。不合這些規格、規則、或程序的論述，我稱為「胡說八道」、「喃喃自語」、或「口吐白沫」；方舟子先生/小姐用「破口大罵」來形容李先生的「言談行動」，我看不出這和「誣指」或「品德」有什麼關係。從我的「道德觀」來看，如果故意在知識領域「胡說八道」，不是有神經病，就是「品德低劣」。

2.   你的第四點是「胡說八道」。不過，難道你沒有聽過「複製羊」、「複製牛」、「複製貓」等等？我建議你多花點時間看看科學新知報導。孔子說，「思而不學則殆」。我想同樣的道理也適用於「修煉」吧。 

我想我已用了足夠的時間。恕我不再回應。