Lecomte du Noüy is an evolutionist
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Claim
Lecomte du Noüy, the French evolutionist, said concerning the belief that warm-blooded birds came from cold-blooded reptiles: "This stands out today as one of the greatest puzzles of evolution." He also made the admission that birds have "all the unsatisfactory characteristics of absolute creation"-—unsatisfactory, that is, to the theory of evolution.
Source
- Anon, 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here?, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., p. 75.
Responses
- The quote is from the book "L'homme et sa destinée" (Human and his destiny) published in 1948 after his death. At this time, Lecomte du Noüy was not a Darwinian evolutionist but a proponent of Teleological evolution like Teilhard de Chardin.
- Pierre Lecomte du Noüy (1883-1947) was a French biologist and philosopher. He didn't accept the randomness of life, but determinism and found every claims to contest view of evolution without purpose.
- The book Life--How Did It Get Here? was written in 1985. To take a statement about the state of science 37 years prior to publication, but keep the the word "today" in the quote, is potentially misleading.
Fallacies contained in this claim
- Appeal to Authority (a statement is not scientifically valid by virtue of the identity of the person making it)
- Argument from Design (what does creation look like?)
- God of the Gaps (since it can't be explained, God must have done it)
References
- Proteins and Probability: A Criticism of M. Pierre Lecomte Du Nouy's Argument for Teleology Based on Some Probability-Estimates, Haig Khatchadourian, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Dec., 1955), pp. 223-228
- Pierre Lecomte Du Nouy, De L'agnosticisme A La Foi(Agnoticism to faith), 1955
- Evolution and determinism with many quotes of Lecomte Du Noüy. (french)
