DARWIN FOR BREAKFAST

DARWIN  FOR  BREAKFAST

Press release 174 E

1. On the photo: my breakfast in the restaurant of the London Museum of Natural History, December 1994. Darwin himself is behind me.

The explanation read further.

2. That time a tiny group of my British supporters, connected with the IDF-company (Anglo-French-Canadian “International Drilling Fluids”, which need my consultations on the possibility to use the biotechnological products of the silicate bacteria), endorsed my visit to the UK to speak at the seminar in the London Museum of Natural History (watch: “Rothschild. Alyoshin. Durrell”, isaurian.blogspot.com, 02 April 2015). On the photo I am before the event beginning.

3. The organizers of the seminar after my speech presented me with a pretty book – the reprint publication of the last life edition of the famous book of Charles Darwin “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” (Down, Beckenham, Kent. Sixth Edition. January 1872. Published by John Murray, London). It was the last edition with Darwin’s own additions, corrections and notes. The reprint was published in 1994 by Senate, an imprint of Studio Editions Ltd, Princess House, 50 Eastcastle Street, London W1N 7AP, England. Printed and bound in Guernsey (Channel Islands) by the Guernsey Press Co Ltd. It has xxi+458 pages.

4. The book is a splendid specimen of the delicious Victorian scientific English language. It has some curious features. E.g., among about 200 000 words of the book the term “evolution” appears for the first time only on the page 201 and is mentioned 3 times else (p. 202, 215, 424). “Evolution” is not also mentioned in the “Glossary” and in the “Index” of the book. The term “evolutionist” is mentioned twice (p. 189, 201; not present in “Glossary” and “Index”), and the term “evolved” is mentioned thrice (p. 191, 202, 429, absent in “Glossary” and “Index”).

Is it the “frame of mind” (Darwin likes this term – p. 205, 209, 217) of the “evolutionist”? Is it the basis of the “theory of evolution”?

The text of the book testifies, that we have here the “frame of mind” of the other kind (or, let me say so, of the other species).

5. Darwin writes: “I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one” (p. 421). Indeed, Darwin cites “Genesis” (1-st book of Moses, 1-st book of the Bible; on page 25 of his book Darwin means “Genesis” 30:35, 39, 40; “Genesis” 31:8, 10, 12). Even more, on p. 2 he writes: “I have always been cautious in trusting to good authorities alone”. Therefore, “Genesis” is the good authority to him.

6. Further, Darwin does not try to explain the origin of life. He writes: “I may here premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the mental powers, any more then I have with that of life itself” (p. 205). And else: “It is no valid objection that science as yet throws no light on the far higher problem of the essence or origin of life” (p. 421).

7. Darwin does not fight against the concepts of Creation or Creator as they are. He even had produced a special term “single centres of Creation” (“Index”, p. 445), which later was transformed by N. I. Vavilov into the “centres of origin”. All the pathos of Darwin’s book is directed to show, “that the view … that each species has been independently created – is erroneous” (p. 4). Not more and not less!

It is very funny, but any Bible-reader must support Darwin in this point. Indeed, Bible does not say, that any species of plants or animals has been created in the special individual creative act. On the contrary, Bible says: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree …” (Genesis, 1:11). And more: “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (Genesis, 1:20). And further: “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and the beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so” (Genesis, 1:24). Therefore, the Biblical view is, that the alive species were not created in the special individual creative acts, but that they were brought forth by earth and water with the order of God. Namely the special individual creative act of human being (Genesis, 1:26 – 27) separates the man, according to the Bible, from the other alive organisms. And other view is the un-Biblical one. Thus, Darwin is fighting against the un-Biblical superstition!

8. Even more funny is the situation with the main subject of the book’s discourse, i. e. with the “species” themselves. Nobody has the clear definition for the term “species”. Darwin writes: “I look at the term species as one arbitrarily given, for the sake of convenience” (p. 42). And else: “It is not pretended that we have any sure criterion by which species and varieties can be discriminated” (p. 313). Even more: “Various groups of species, such as orders, sub-orders, families, sub-families and genera, they seem to be, at least at present, almost arbitrary” (p. 369). Darwin even writes about “the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species” (p. 426). Darwin is sure only in the understanding of the relations between species and varieties. He writes: “Varieties are species in the process of formation, or are, as I have called them, incipient species” (p. 86), and vice versa: “Species are only strongly marked and permanent varieties” (p. 412). Thus, the author does not know, the origin of what objects he tries to explain, but he is sure, that he understands the nature of relations between the groups of the objects, having the “undiscoverable essence”!

9. Darwin’s idea of the “undiscoverableness” of the essence of the species is based on the description of the empirical situation with the determination of the species of the different genera by the most famous biologists. E. g., Darwin writes about the most obscure situation with species, sub-species and varieties of oak, described by Alphonse De Candolle and Asa Gray (p. 40). The participants of our seminar noted, that the situation with the species of oak is very similar to the situation with species of rice, which had been described and reported by me (watch: “Darwin. Species. Bible.”, isaurian.blogspot.com, 23 March 2013).

10. And now, at last, to Darwin’s frame of mind itself. The reader, who has not investigated 200 000 words of the “Origin of Species …” text with necessary care shall have a big surprise to find out in the book not a rigid scientistic frame of mind of an egg-head evolutionist, but something like Queen Mab’s “traces of the smallest spider web” (Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet”, I, iv, 64).

Watch yourself.

Darwin’s text contains the following passages:

p. vii: “… disbelieving in great and abrupt …”

p. ix: “… general belief in …”

p. xii: “… disbelieving in great and sudden …”

p. xii: “… belief in the separate …”

p. xiii: “… majority of naturalists believed …”

p. xvi: “… belief that varieties …”

p. xvii: “… believes that organisation progresses …”

p. xix: “… believing that specific characters …”

p. xix: “… belief and treatment of the subject …”

p. xix: “… belief, that species are formed …”

p. xix: “… believes … that species …”

p. xx: “belief that species undergo development.”

p. xx: “… a similar belief …”

p. xx: “… believe in the modification of species …”

p. xx: “… disbelieve in separate …”

p. 2: “… trusting to good authorities …”

p. 4: “I believe, the future success and modification of every inhabitant of this world.”

p. 9: “… believe that long limbs are …”

p. 10: “… fundamental belief …”

p. 10: “A much more important rule, which I think may be trusted …”

p. 12: “I do not believe, as we shall presently see, that the whole amount of difference …”

p. 13: “I believe that a small part of the difference …”

p. 14: “… some competent judges believe …”

p. 14: “… believe, in opposition to several authors, that all races belong to the same species.”

p. 14: “… believe that every race …”

p. 14: “… believes that there formerly existed …”

p. 15: “…believe that animals …”

p. 15: “Believing that it is always best …”

p. 17: “I do not believe that any …”

p. 17: “… led me to this belief …”

p. 19: “… believe that long-continued domestication …”

p. 21: “I felt fully as much difficulty in believing …”

p. 21: “… disbelieves that several sorts …”

p. 22: “… believe that the fuller’s teasel …”

p. 23: “… believe in the natural capacity …”

p. 25: “… believe that King Charle’s spaniel …”

p. 25: “… the change has, it is believed, been …”

p. 27: “… explains, as I believe, the well-known fact …”

p. 35: “… naturalists have honestly confessed …”

p. 36: “… believe that many of these doubtful and closely allied forms …”

p. 39: “Yet it must be confessed …”

p. 41: “… believes that species …”

p. 45: “… believe the process of manufacturing new species …”

p. 46: “… believe that the species which are closely allied …”

p. 52: “… it is believed to be the most …”

p. 55: “… we may believe, that a plant could exist only …”

p. 58: “… believes that more than two-thirds …”

p. 60: “… believe that only a few plants …”

p. 61: “… the full belief, that the war of nature is not incessant, that no fear is felt, that death is generally prompt, and that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply.”

p. 64: “… believe, as shown in the first chapter, that changes in the conditions of life …”

p. 64: “I believe that any great …”

p. 70: “Thus it is, as I believe, that when the males …”

p. 74: “… we may believe that it would be advantageous …”

p. 74: “… it may be believed that under certain circumstances …”

p. 76: “… belief on the continued …”

p. 76: “… believe that all hermaphrodites …”

p. 76: “… universal belief of breeders …”

p. 76: “… incline me to believe that it is a general law of nature …”

p. 76: “On the belief that this is a law of nature …”

p. 78: “I believe this objection to be valid …”

p. 80: “… is, I believe, a highly important element of success …”

p. 84: “I do not believe so. But I do believe …”

p. 85: “I further believe …”

p. 93: “Thus, as I believe, species are multiplied …”

p. 95: “Thus it is, as I believe, that two or more genera are produced …”

p. 98: “… the truth of this belief …”

p. 99: “… believe that the brain …”

p. 99: “I believe that many lowly organised forms …”

p. 100: “… all organic forms, as we may believe …”

p. 100: “… apparently believes …”

p. 104: “I believe this simile largely speaks the truth.”

p. 112: “… believe that species in a state of nature …”

p. 113: “I must believe …”

p. 117: “… believe in its truth …”

p. 128: “I believe this to be true.”

p. 129: “… believes that the several breeds …”

p. 130: “I would almost as soon believe …”

p. 134: “I will here only state that I believe …”

p. 135: “I believe that many perfectly defined species …”

p. 139: “… believe, to lessen the danger …”

p. 139: “… believe that some at least of the squirrels …”

p. 139: “Nor can I see any insuperable difficulty in further believing …”

p. 143: “… believes in separate …”

p. 143: “… believes in the struggle for existence and in the principle of natural selection …”

p. 143: “I freely confess …”

p. 143: “… believing that a perfect and complex eye …”

p. 146: “… may we not believe that a living optical instrument …”

p. 160: “… believe that the webbed feet of the upland goose …”

p. 160: “… we may believe that the progenitor of the seal …”

p. 160: “… we may further venture to believe that the several bones …”

p. 160: “… with respect to the belief …”

p. 160: “… belief which it has been pronounced …”

p. 162: “I would almost as soon believe …”

p. 164: “… which on the belief …”

p. 168: “… disbelieving in great and abrupt modifications …”

p. 168: “… believes in natural selection …”

p. 169: “… believe in an innate and necessary law …”

p. 170: “… believes in an innate tendency …”

p. 171: “I can no more believe in this …”

p. 176: “Thus, as I am inclined to believe morphological differences …”

p. 188: “It is impossible to believe …”

p. 189: “… there is no necessity for any such belief …”

p. 189: “… believes from what …”

p. 194: “… there is no difficulty in believing that all the gradations …”

p. 199: “… there is no improbability in the belief …”

p. 200: “The belief that any given structure …”

p. 201: “… believes that species change …”

p. 201: “… inclined to believe …”

p. 201: “… believe that the wing of a bird …”

p. 201: “… believes in slow and gradual evolution …”

p. 201: “… entirely disbelieving …”

p. 202: “… it is almost necessary to believe …”

p. 203: “… supports at first sight the belief …”

p. 203: “… light is thrown by the belief …”

p. 203: “But against the belief …”

p. 213: “…believe, that the young …”

p. 213: “I believe that the strange instinct …”

p. 213: “… there is no difficulty in believing that a race or species …”

p. 214: “… inclined to believe that the act of ejection …”

p. 215: “… a strong disbeliever …”

p. 216: “… believing that, although the Tachytes nigra  …”

p. 222: “I believe that the hive-bee …”

p. 227: “Thus, as I believe, the most wonderful of all known instincts …”

p. 228: “… must believe that they were independently acquired through natural selection. “

p. 230: “This difficulty, though appearing insuperable, is lessened, or, as I believe, disappears …”

p. 231: “… insects all of one caste, which, as I believe, have been rendered …”

p. 231: “I fully believe, though I dare not assert so positively …”

p. 232: “I believe that natural selection …”

p. 233: “… how, as I believe, the wonderful fact …”

p. 233: “I must confess, that, with all my faith in natural selection …”

p. 236: “… believed to be descended …”

p. 236: “… intercrossed, as he believed.”

p. 237: “I believe that their fertility …”

p. 238: “… may, as I believe, be accounted …”

p. 239: “… believed to be the case …”

p. 240: “… believe that the hybrids …”

p. 241: “… belief on the universal sterility of species when crossed …”

p. 246: “I believe that the still more complex laws …”

p. 248: “… believe that modifications …”

p. 249: “I believe …”

p. 249: “I was unwilling to believe …”

p. 251: “… almost universal belief …”

p. 257: “Thus, as I believe, we can understand …”

p. 257: “… we believe …”

p. 258: “No one, I believe, has suspected that these varieties …”

p. 260: “So I believe it to be with varieties of plants …”

p. 263: “… belief that species aboriginally existed as varieties.”

p. 265: “The explanation lies, as I believe, in …”

p. 268: “… most geologists now believe …”

p. 268: “… fully believes that there is …”

p. 271: “… entirely disbelieve in the …”

p. 271: “… it is difficult to avoid believing …”

p. 274: “… belief that sedimentary beds …”

p. 274: “… believe that our present metamorphotic …”

p. 274: “… belief that they have subsequently been …”

p. 279: “… we believe that these eminent …”

p. 280: “… writers who believe …”

p. 280: “… believe that the terrestrial productions …”

p. 281: “… belief that it would be chiefly these far-ranging species …”

p. 282: “… belief in the transmutation of species …”

p. 283: “… believing that it might profit the modified descendants of the penguin …”

p. 289: “… we may perhaps believe …”

p. 289: “… in their former belief …”

p. 289: “… believe that the geological record …”

p. 291: “… believe that organisms …”

p. 291: “… believe that the same …”

p. 292: “… believe that parent-forms …”

p. 293: “… believe, from the study of the …”

p. 294: “… believe that the extinction of a whole group of species …”

p. 295: “… believes that it is chiefly insects …”

p. 295: “… belief that each new variety …”

p. 296: “… we may believe that the production of new forms …”

p. 296: “Thus, as I believe, a number of new species …”

p. 300: “… believing that most of our great formations …”

p. 300: “… believe that large areas …”

p. 303: “… belief that the more ancient a form is …”

p. 306: “… believe that the forms successively produced …”

p. 306: “… in his belief …”

p. 308: “… believed to be in fact more highly organised …”

p. 309: “… we must believe …”

p. 315: “… belief held by so many palaeontologists …”

p. 315: “… believe, and it may be …”

p. 317: “… believe that the isthmus …”

p. 320: “… believing that they have migrated …”

p. 320: “… believe that the species …”

p. 320 – 321: “The answer, as I believe, is, that mammals …”

p. 321: “… belief, rendered probable …”

p. 322: “… the belief that a single birthplace is the law, seems to me incomparably the safest …”

p. 323: “… are to be trusted …”

p. 324: “… believe that it will …”

p. 324: “… belief of their former continuity …”

p. 327: “… believed by some farmers …”

p. 327: “… consequence of this belief …”

p. 330: “… in this same belief …”

p. 333: “The explanation, I believe, lies in the nature of the climate …”

p. 333: “… believe that the climate …”

p. 333: “Believing …”

p. 333: “We now see, as I believe, their descendants …”

p. 336: “… believes that the last great Glacial period …”

p. 336: “I am strongly inclined to trust in it …”

p. 337: “… believed not to have been introduced by man …”

p. 343: “… believed that the same fresh-water species …”

p. 345: “I do not believe that botanists …”

p. 346: “… makes me believe that it would have rejected the seeds …”

p. 346: “… believe that such beings become modified …”

p. 347: “… disbelieving in continental …”

p. 347: “… believe that the naturalised plants …”

p. 352: “… belief in the efficiency of occasional means …”

p. 352: “… belief in the former connection …”

p. 354: “I do not believe in this doctrine …”

p. 358: “It will, I believe, be found universally …”

p. 358: “I believe as a general rule we do find …”

p. 358: “… believe from geological …”

p. 359: “… believing that all the individuals of the same species …”

p. 365: “… believe that it …”

p. 369: “I believe that the arrangement of the groups within each class …”

p. 371: “… believed to be descended from a single species …”

p. 372: “I believe it has been …”

p. 379: “… believed to be real …”

p. 381: “I believe that this element of descent …”

p. 381: “… trusts chiefly to embryological characters …”

p. 381: “… believed to have first appeared …”

p. 384: “… believe that the bones …”

p. 385: “… believes that the hearts of birds …”

p. 387: “… belief in the essential identity …”

p. 387: “… believes that this occurs frequently …”

p. 388: “… believe in such a relation …”

p. 389: “… believe that the similar bones …”

p. 390: “… belief, that if there had been no suppression of development …”

p. 391: “I believe that all these facts can be explained, as follows …”

p. 391: “The cause may have acted, and I believe often has acted …”

p. 392: “… explain, as I believe, all the above specified leading facts …”

p. 396: “… believes this to be a universal law of nature …”

p. 398: “I believe this to be the case …”

p. 399: “It is also, I believe, a universal rule …”

p. 400: “I could as soon believe …”

p. 404: “Causes of the general belief …”

p. 404: “Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe …”

p. 405: “… believe that slight changes …”

p. 406: “… believe that some species …”

p. 407: “… believe that only a few species …”

p. 408: “… most geologists believe …”

p. 410: “… believe that a modification …”

p. 415: “… we believe that these species are all descended …”

p. 420: “… we may believe that the teeth …”

p. 421: “… belief in the revolution of the earth on its own axis …”

p. 422: “A celebrated author and divine has written to me that “he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws.”

p. 422: “… geologists disbelieve …”

p. 422: “The belief that species …”

p. 423: “… believe that species are mutable …”

p. 423: “… belief that a multitude of reputed species …”

p. 423: “… believe that at innumerable periods …”

p. 423: “… believe that at each …”

p. 423: “… believe in the appearance …”

p. 423: “… it is as easy to believe …”

p. 423: “… certainly we ought not to believe …”

p. 424: “… naturalists believe …”

p. 424: “… the general belief …”

p. 424: “… believe in evolution …”

p. 424: “… believing that new forms …”

p. 424: “… over the old belief …”

p. 424: “I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number.”

p. 424: “… belief that all animals and plants …”

p. 426: “… believed, to be connected at the present day by intermediate gradations …”

p. 434: “It is believed that glacial periods …”

11. Full stop. To the alive yet readers I let conclude: in the Darwin’s text it is impossible to find the scientifical frame of mind, through which the naturalist investigates the Nature. One has not here a frame of mind or, as Timiryazev wrote, “the historical method in biology”. Not at all! One has here a mammoth heap of biological, geographical, geological facts, fastened with the cob-web “Gordian knot” of innumerable beliefs, believings, trusts and faiths of sometimes obscure, sometimes funny, sometimes curious essence. This “Gordian knot” in itself demonstrates – in Darwin’s own words – “the vain endeavour to grapple with the idea of eternity” (p. 269). And the vain endeavour, in its’ turn, recalls the verses of Shakespeare: “Life … is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Macbeth, V, v: 18-28).

To hew this “Gordian knot” I had to coin a new term – “a believist”. Not a “believer”, because the “believer” is strongly connoted with fundamental Christians or Moslems. “Believist” looks at the world through the cob-web “Gordian knot” of his beliefs. Darwin is the believist, indeed. And the correct title for his masterpiece must be: “The Origin of Undescribed and Undescribable Essence Something by Means of Beliefs and Believings or the Confession of the Biological Believist’s Faith”.

12. Peace unto you! (John, 20:19)

Professor              Nicholas  Eugene  Alyoshin

AFTERWORD

It is very important to note three following points:

First. Darwin’s frame of mind is totally lost in Russian translations of his book. The translators (including famous Timiryazev, F. R. S.) had worked hard to eliminate from the text all the words, connected with belief, faith, trust, confession, etc. or to change them for the neutral words, not connected with the named essences. At last they had successfully castrated Darwin’s masterpiece, and it became a useful instrument for stalinists-communists-atheists.

Second. Darwin’s frame of mind is a species of the so called “frame of reading” – a special cryptographic method (a key) for decyphering reading and understanding of the cyphered texts. The frame of reading is also the very significant phenomenon in molecular biology, where the special enzymes are reading the Nucleic Acids “texts”, cyphered with the genetical code. The frame of reading is, as well, of the highest value for theology. E. g. one to use the New Testament as the frame of reading to read the Bible is the Christian; the one to use the Talmud as a frame of reading the Law, Psaltery and Prophets is the Talmudic Judaist; the one to use Koran as a frame of reading to read the Bible is the Moslem (watch: “Peacemaker”, isaurian.blogspot.com, 25 September 2012).

It is necessary also to understand, that the New Testament contains in itself the basic frame of reading (its’ theory is now being developed by Russian talented theologian Yuriy Voroshilov; this basic frame consists of the quadrangle of the following New Testament passages: Matthew, 28:19 – 20; Galatians, 2:20; 2 Corinthians, 1:20; Luke, 24:44). The basic frame of reading exists also inside the Koran (“the ordering verses to be the Mother of the Book” – Koran, 3:7).

Third. Having the contacts with the biological believists, using the Darwin’s frame of mind (as well as with the Talmudic Judaists or the Moslems, etc.), the true Christian must follow the rule, given by the Holy Spirit through the apostle: “Because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith” (Romans, 11:20) – expound positively your own faith, not trying to show your own religious superiority or the inferiority of carriers of the other beliefs, frames of mind, etc.

And the only True God (Koine: monon Alaesinon Theon – John, 17:3) shall pronounced over them His “true and righteous judgment, which sweeter than honey and honeycomb” (Psalm 19:9 – 10).

God is great! (Psalm 70:4; LXX, Ps. 69:5).

Professor   N. E. Alyoshin