[betty boop]

Darwin didn’t discover evolution. He observed minor variations within species, assumed without any scientific evidence whatsoever that said variations could cross every taxonomic boundary, and further assumed without evidence that this had been going on for millions of years, and further assumed without a shred of evidence that this traced all the way back to a mythical first protocell. In other words, Darwinian evolution is a materialist religion, not science.

Yep. That's about the size of it GGG! Astutely and most concisely noted. Thank you!

My own view is the theory has a suspicious premise and is incomplete at best. And yet it seems to be the core ideology of biology today. Which puts it very much at odds with findings emerging from complexity and information sciences, and biosemiotics. At the very least, it is helpless to explain them.

Still, many cling to the faith. For as Francis Bacon, the founder of the modern scientific method, observed [Novum Organum]:

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects; in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former convictions may remain inviolate.

Bacon indicates this sort of thing is an example of an "Idol of the Tribe." An "idol" is a "false notion." Bacon's classification of this one as "of the Tribe" means that it is innate or inherent "in the very nature of the intellect," thus "in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men." The danger it poses to human understanding is its "false mirror" quality, which, according to Bacon, "receiv[es] rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it."

We may think we're "objective observers." But if we can't get around that idol, we aren't justified in thinking of ourselves as truly "objective."

Bacon suggests that the only cure for this universal human phenomenon is,

...let every student of nature take this as a rule — that whatever his mind seizes and dwells upon with particular satisfaction is to be held in suspicion, and that so much the more care is to be taken in dealing with such questions to keep the understanding even and clear.

In sum, science ought to be about Nature, not partisanship.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dearest sister in Christ!

[GodGunsGuts]

Thanks BB :o) Excellent F. Bacon quote btw. I have never run across it before, but I find him spot-on. It seems more and more “science” these days is based on opinions that are agreeable to those who place their faith in materialist/Evo-religion. What really blows my mind is that the Evos can’t see it. The actually believe their opinions are the same thing as settled science.

[gobucks]

hmmm, or,..... “we see through a glass, darkly”..

Really nice post BB...didn’t know about these words of Bacon, btw.

[freedumb2003]

The tendency to calcify thinking is a bane to all scientific disciplines and has no more nor less applicability to TToE than any other.

It was Einstein who said he didn’t need proof — that other scientists did (when he was proven correct about his theory).

If someone can bring real hard data and an alternate theory that explains all the data collected to date (billions of artifacts) that meets all criteria for a Scientific Theory, I am all ears and eyes.

btw, please do have a blessed day. I know you and AG’s hearts are pure on this topic. Sadly, you are the exceptions more often than not.