Quotessence
Home / Authors / Elliott Sober
Elliott Sober

Elliott Sober Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllTheoryIfsSelectionBiologyClaimsEvolutionary BiologyGroupsHypothesisNaturalThinkingDifferentFactsOrganismsSpeciesBiologistCommonDeismEvidenceExampleMetaphysical

Famous Elliott Sober Quotes

“Evolutionary theory, properly understood, does not conflict with the idea that God occasionally intervenes in nature - for example, by once or twice causing a beneficial mutation to occur. Biologists have not detected any such interventions despite the data and theory they have assembled about mutation. However, I think it is a mistake to expect biological experiments to be able to detect such one-off acts of divine intervention, especially if those acts occurred in the distant past. Science isn't in that line of work.”

IfsThinkingDoeIdeasAblePastLinesMistakeExampleDivineTheoryConflictUnderstoodExperimentsDespiteDataInterventionBeneficialBiologistDivine InterventionMutation
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“Evolutionary biologists often appeal to parsimony when they seek to explain why organisms "match" with respect to a given trait. For example, why do almost all the organisms that are alive today on our planet use the same genetic code? If they share a common ancestor, the code could have evolved just once and then been inherited from the most recent common ancestor that present organisms share. On the other hand, if organisms in different species share no common ancestors, the code must have evolved repeatedly.”

IfsDifferentUseHandsTodayGivenCommonAliveShareExamplePlanetsSpeciesAppealsCodeAncestorTraitsOrganismsOur PlanetLive For TodayBiologistParsimony
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image