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Hugh Dower
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Hugh Dower is a chemist and essayist, notable for his criticism of neo-Darwinism.
Biography[edit]
Dower is from a Quaker upbringing and claims to be a follower of Elaine Morgan’s Aquatic ape theory and the ideas of Rupert Sheldrake.[1]
Views on evolution[edit]
Like Shaun Johnston and Charlie Wagner, Dower states that he accepts the theory of evolution, but is interested in alternative evolutionary mechanisms. In practice, this involves much criticism of natural selection and advocacy for mechanisms such as Lamarckism (which he states might be considered the forerunner of punctuated equilibrium theory[2]). This sort of argument has often paralleled the arguments of creationists, as in Dower's book The Alternative Life, which echoes much intelligent design literature.[3] As an example, Dower has argued that random mutation is unlikely to have had anything to do with evolution; in one essay, he criticizes "the improbability of a one-off mutation becoming established across a widespread species," a key concept of the theory of evolution by natural selection.[4]