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To: Buck Turgidson
Do you understand the scientific method? The fossil record and geology can be used to confirm evolution.

Yes but apparently you don't:

I. The scientific method has four steps

  1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.
  2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation.
  3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations.
  4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.

If the experiments bear out the hypothesis it may come to be regarded as a theory or law of nature (more on the concepts of hypothesis, model, theory and law below). If the experiments do not bear out the hypothesis, it must be rejected or modified. What is key in the description of the scientific method just given is the predictive power (the ability to get more out of the theory than you put in; see Barrow, 1991) of the hypothesis or theory, as tested by experiment. It is often said in science that theories can never be proved, only disproved. There is always the possibility that a new observation or a new experiment will conflict with a long-standing theory.

http://teacher.nsrl.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html

So you see, the heart of the scientific method is experimentation with measurable and repeatable results. Observing fossils is not an experiment and making an interpretation that A evolved into B is not an experiment. Evolution theory has steps 1 and 2 only. It doesn't have 3 or 4.

Furthermore, the fossil record is at the heart of the anti-evolution argument anyway. But that's another issue. The bottom line is, Maxwell's electromagnetic equations are not a theory in remotely the same way as evolution. Every piece of electro-magnetic equipment in the world runs on Maxwell's equations.

421 posted on 08/28/2002 8:19:38 PM PDT by lasereye
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