Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: John Valentine

You are correct in that science cannot abide such a lame explanation as "God just made it that way".

But if he DID just make it that way, it wouldn't really matter that it isn't a satisfying scientific explanation.

Creation is by its very nature an extra-scientific event. But it doesn't claim to be anything else. Evolution on the other hand makes the scientific claim, and therefore must be measured on that basis.

There are those who argue for "scientific creationism", but they don't mean that the act of creation is scientific (which really confuses the issue). They mean that the evidence of history which is discovered through observation is not inconsistant with whatever view of creation they are peddling.

But the detective work of divining history through observation is not the same "science" as the "scientific theory" of evolution. Which in fact is a theory with widespread evidence,observable and repeatable. It's just that the "scientific theory of evolution" describes a natural process, not an historical event. Historical events are not scientific theories.

If we could distinguish between history and science, and teach stuff in the proper context, I imagine most "creationists" would crawl back into their spiritual worlds and leave the rest of you alone. They have a point -- no matter how well you can 'explain' observations by the evolutionary model, and no matter if you can find fossils which fit a historical hypothesis that is consistant with an evolutionary model, you simply cannot prove the manner in which we reached our current state of affairs.

Part of the problem is that those who wanted to be free from religion co-opted the science of evolution to use it as a hammer to smash the pillars of religion. The "God is Dead" crowd made a religion out of the science of Evolution, and it was inevitable that those who held to other doctrine would fight back. Science simply was caught in the crossfire.


36 posted on 05/06/2005 8:19:38 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT (http://spaces.msn.com/members/criticallythinking)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies ]


To: CharlesWayneCT

Notwithstanding, historical events are factual and true when the witness to the events describes them accurately. And I believe quite literally.


49 posted on 05/06/2005 8:33:20 PM PDT by killermosquito (Hillary, go back to the little rock you crawled out from under!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies ]

To: CharlesWayneCT

Bingo.


131 posted on 05/06/2005 9:21:57 PM PDT by raygun
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies ]

To: CharlesWayneCT

That is a wonderfully fantastic post! Do you mind if I quote it in its entirety on my own site? http://crevobits.blogspot.com/


291 posted on 05/07/2005 3:53:58 PM PDT by johnnyb_61820
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson