Here is why Spencer is hard to interpret:
(I have a copy of Spencer's original work in my basement ...that I found in an old bookstore 50 years ago...it is hard reading!)

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spencer/

He USED the concepts of evolutionary theory to explain certain ideas about social theories..like justice. The problem was that many people...then, as now... grabbed onto the words and didn't take the trouble to sort out the actual thrust of his arguments.

The major flaw in Spencer was that he took Lamarkan ideas seriously..(the idea of "the inheritance of acquired characteristics"). This has been overwhelmingly disproved in biology (as least as Lamarck understood it), but can be related to social, psychological...etc. theory...if done carefully. It would be better explained without Lamarck's name attached to confuse thing.
Interesting: I just learned for the 1st time that Darwin and Galton were cousins, and that Galton was heavily influenced by his older cousin!. http://www.galtoninstitute.org.uk/Newsletters/GINL0003/francis_galton.htm

Evolutionary theory is constantly being refined and the details debated... as science reqires....and while names such as Darwin, Spencer, Lamarck...and Galton... are necessary to study the HISTORY of the theory, it is entirely possible to explain, debate and verify the ideas with no reference to ANY of them. The science of sorting out the history of the Earth and our place in it requires only finding data and relating all the data to itself.

What in going on in this thread is that religious "beliefs" are being alternately claimed and denied as relevant to the study of evolution as a science. I see why this happens, but it just cannot work that way. *IF* religion is correct as an explanation for "the beginning of everything", we cannot test the details beyond what science can say about specific assertions about dates. IF presumed Biblical dates don't match the science, the proper conclusion is that translations and interpretations of the Bible have been confused....because the data science uses remains there, unaltered...to study as best we can. Biblical 'data' changes and is interpreted (and interpreted in a different way than scientific data). If you read..when you can find it... the religious beliefs of various scientists...from Darwin on up.. it becomes evident just how easy it is to confuse different ideas about data itself and the proper place OF science & belief in understanding data.....


gotta stop... too much 'life' going on right now