The Tower of Babel: Language and Evolution

The bible story about the origin of multiple human languages is that God, in order to humble Man, created a "confusion of tongues" at the Tower of Babel. By contrast, since the mid-19th century ? roughly when Darwin was advancing his theory of evolution ? linguists have realized that the diversity of language is, like biological diversity, a product of natural processes of change. But recently (and with alarming success in this country) religious advocates of "creationism" and "intelligent design" have attempted to counter scientific approaches to evolution and change. The logic ? rather, the illogic ? of these efforts applies as much to the development of language as it does to our understanding of the history of life. In this course we?ll examine the nature of both linguistic and biological evolution, and explore the adequacy of scriptural and pseudo-scientific "explanations" in these domains. REA, WRI