(March 24, 2015 at 1:25 pm)Nope Wrote: Do you have a historical example of a benevolent dictator? I find it difficult to believe one ever existedRemember that for many theists, god personifies good. So all of his actions are good, even if we would otherwise define them as evil, or horrifying, or terrible, or wicked. Therefore, he is a benevolent dictator. And you'd better agree or he'll grab you by the...
...ah, wait. You're referring to someone who would have actually existed. Never mind!
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
