|
|
In 1995, the National
Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) passed a resolution promoting this
slogan:
"The diversity of life
on earth is the outcome of evolution: an unsupervised,
impersonal, unpredictable, and natural process of temporal descent with
genetic modification that is affected by natural selection, chance, historical
contingencies, and changing environments."
The
ASA (and others) took issue with this statement – successfully.
In 1997, the NABT deleted
the two words in red from the definition.
The
definition is now no longer tied to philosophical naturalism. Some
philosophical naturalists, Richard Dawkins and Massimo Pigliucci among them,
are not pleased with this. Others, such as Eugenie Scott, supported the change.