Atheism 29.Evidence of Evolution

Creationists seem to be hell bent of denying their own eyes - that is - Evolution is happening all around them and yet they think it is God.
Let's look at what the evidence is for what Evolution says and what it does not.
  • Evolution is a theory.
  • It is NOT based on assumptions that cannot be proven.
  • It does NOT say there is no need for God,although it sheds grave doubts on the idea.
  • It does NOT say there is no need for sin or a saviour.
  • It does NOT say there is no basis for morals and values or a purpose for life.
  • It does NOT say there is no ultimate account for our lives,but who needs one anyway?
  • It strictly does NOT say that the Bible is unreliable and false,although a reasoning person may use evolution to show this maybe the case.

 What does the bible say?

  • The bible does not mention chemistry  or DNA or how consciousness arises,but just says that God made man without defiining what God is.God could just as well be the quantum possibility of life.
  • It says you are loved and wanted by God.
  • It says you are in need of forgiveness,presumably for the sin of thinking.
  • You are maybe going to meet God one day if you are on your best behaviour - though no one says what that behaviour is.
  • God is going to forgive you no matter what you do -so if you sin or be good it makes no odds.

 Evolution is a theory arrived at by looking at the facts and trying to work out what is happening - no one had a vested interest in disproving the bible - but creationists get annoyed by Evolution because it shows so clearly that they are plain wrong.This is why they try so hard to undermine it or teach people Creationism alongside it or throw people in jail for teaching it as a truth.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Isn't 'Intelligent Design' just a theory?

Whenever I'm confronted by a creationist, sooner or later I face the question: evolution is 'just' a theory, and it shouldn't be taught as fact in public schools. To do otherwise is to be intellectually dishonest, and it clearly leads us to the road of perdition and to the collapse of our country.

Patiently, I try to explain that evolution is both a fact and a theory (or, rather, a body of facts and theories). Just like there is a fact of, say, gravity, as well as a scientific explanation for that fact, so there is a fact of evolution (living beings really have changed and continue to change through time) and a theory of how this happens (by natural selection and other processes).

But the thought recently occurred to me, partly because all of the clamour about Bush and Intelligent Design: isn't it fair to ask the same question about ID? Isn't ID 'just' a theory? In fact, it is worse: intelligent design is not even a (scientific) theory, it's a generic idea that used to have some philosophical valence in pre-scientific times (let's say from Plato in the 4th century BCE to William Paley in the 19th century CE), but is clearly dead now (as science, regardless of how many Americans may think otherwise -- let's not forget that a sizable percentage of Americans believes in haunted houses, but that doesn't make ghosts a serious possibility...).

So, ironically, ID is 'just' a theory precisely in the derogative sense typically reserved by creationists for evolution: not only it's not a fact, not only it isn't a scientific theory, it's just the unsubstantiated hunch of irreduciblysuperstitious and insecure people who really can't stand the thought of a universe where they are not the center of all the attention.

posted by Massimo Pigliucci | 12:28 PM



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