Posted on 04/08/2002 11:55:01 AM PDT by PeaceBeWithYou
Found the article very interesting, never having heard of Nexus I visited their website. Quite a fascinating array of topics.
Let me follow this line of thought. I'm assuming he does'nt want science to be settled by open elections, that would be too stupid even for the author. So what does he mean by democratic?
Open exchainge of information (Yes, that's a hallmark of science).
Peer review (Again Yes).
That anybody can declare themselves a peer just by saying so? That's were he is wrong. Common sense just does'nt cut it. You may of course review it, but don't be surprised when your new non-math theory of physics is widely ignored.
Later in the essay he shows his true colors. Bozo is a creationist. The concept of social evolution is more a political thought then scientific. Undermining it does NOTHING to the theory of evolution, so the nepharious motive is gone. The theory of evolution has had predicive value and has a good degree of testing. Consider the following predicition made by evolution. Fossiles of creatures that appear to be related a found 50 million years appart in the rock strata. Evolution predicts that creatures found between these two dates would be in a state somewhere between the two. Expeditions are mounted searching rocks of the appropriate age. Fossils are found and show changes just as predicted. This has happend many times (look at the fossil record of horses for many good examples). Every time is happens the newly discovered creature is given a name and the creationist now claim there is no transitional creatures between the three, ignoring the fact that the middle one is halfway between the early and late ones. This still does'nt properly ammount to a 'Law', all of science is theory from gravity to evolotion. Many of these theorys are supported by a large body of scientific evidence and continue to have predictive value.
Evolution is as much a law as gravity is. If the fossil record was all put down during the flood you would expect all stata to contain equal mixes of primative and complex life. This prediction fails. The theory of flood geology does'nt have any predictive value. The predictions made are found to be false.
Heinlein said it best 'If you want to believe god created the universe 6000 years ago fine, just accept she (my edit) created it OLD as a test of faith'.
Replace "theory of evolution" with HIV_AIDS hypothesis.
Evolution is a theory that has been searching for facts to back it up since day one. How many theories are there that started out with zero facts, zero data? If Darwin had named his theory Adaptation, which most of it actually is, there would be no shortage of facts then or now to back it up.
I am a poor farmer in Peru. I am very intelligent, but because of education and family issues, I am destined to stay where I am, unless I uproot my family and move to some city somewhere. There I would most likely have to live in some slum until I found someone willing to give an uneducated farmer a chance. I do have one thing of intrest, I discovered a cache of rock carvings that depict very boring scenes of everyday life. Every now and then, I see some foreigner pass through is interested in antique items. I have my stash of stones but really they are unintesting. I come up with an idea. I know I can find the same rocks the stones were carved from(they are fairly common), and I can carve some unusual pictures that would really interest the foreigner. So I start off carving a man hunting a giraffe, I've seen a picture of one once. So I start carving, it takes a couple of attempts but I come pretty close to the style(I've seen the stones, they are a stick figure with layers of outlines).
I hand the foreigner two rocks, one normal and one with the giraffe. He likes them and asks for more, I give him some of the old ones and he asks for more. I tell him to come back later and I'll give him some more. I carve one more unusual one and have about 10 more of the old ones. The foreigner is very excited with his new batch. He pays me money for the stones and says that he would be interested in more, but he has to go and won;t be back for several months. I say thank you for huge amount of money he gives me(a small price for him) and I begin my work on more carvings.
The rest you know. Of the 11K stones, there are very few truely interesting stones. The scientist was happy with his find, and the farmer got big coin for his couple of days of carving effort. That seems to be the more likely scenario.
Predictions made about fossils that have not been dug up yet are testable and have been tested.
The theory of evolution predates understanding of DNA. DNA data backs the theory of evolution. Pedictions were made (e.g. related species like humans and chimps will share most of their genome), these predictions were tested and are true.
The apparent relation of similar species is also data and backs the theory of evolution.
The same thing with the pyramids. When a bunch of "experts' can't figure out how it was done, they have to come up with a mystical explaination to explain their inadequacies.
Think of it this way. Would you invest in a project of someone with a hisory of promoting sand to gold machines or perpetual motion?
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