Norman Macbeth Quotes

#1. The two sides of the equation are the same. We have a tautology. The definition is meaningless.

Norman Macbeth

#2. Natural selection is almost always handled in general temps . This means that it has no explanatory power when specific problems arise.

Norman Macbeth

#3. The simplest case, where one is informed that a cat is black because it is black, may be harmless, though irritating and useless; but the actual cases [in statements of evolutionary theory] are always harder to detect than this, and may darken counsel for a long time.

Norman Macbeth

#4. Unfortunately, in the field of evolution most explanations are not good. As a matter of fact, they hardly qualify as explanations at all; they are suggestions, hunches, pipe dreams, hardly worthy of being called hypotheses.

Norman Macbeth

#5. Darwinism has failed in practice. The whole aim and purpose of Darwinism is to show how modern forms descended from ancient forms, that is, to construct reliable phylogenies [evolutionary family trees]. In this it has utterly failed.

Norman Macbeth

#6. After observing mutations in fruit flies for many years, Professes Goldschmidt fell into despair. The changes, he lamented, were so hopelessly micro [insignificant] that if a thousand mutations were combined in one specimen, there would still be no new species.

Norman Macbeth