Biology Prof: Evolution Isn’t Theory, it’s Fact

Human Events ^ | August 17 | Christopher Flickinger

[PApatriot1]

Did you hear the news? Evolution is no longer a theory. It’s a fact! I know, I can’t believe it either. Wait, you haven’t heard about this breakthrough discovery? Well, you might want to check with Professor Colin Purrington, an evolutionary biologist who teaches at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Professor Purrington says, “Evolution is a ‘theory’ like gravity is a ‘theory.’”

[bluetone006]

"The professor is correct. There are facts that can be tested and observations made to confirm the hypothesis."

lol - and what would those be?

[r9etb]

Hm. Flickinger's article isn't really all that good.

[ClearCase_guy]

So we can go about changing your DNA all day long and you'll still be you?

Most likely I'll still be human. But if you can change my DNA and turn me into a newt, I'd be impressed.

[narby]

has just crushed random chance (evolution) as a viable theory. The hard science doesn't support it and the math doesn't support it.

Get a grip. The smoking gun proof that humans share a common ancestor with primates is contained in your very own DNA. There were rare pre-historic viral infections in our common ancestor that have left remnants in the DNA of primates and humans. The only possible explanation is a common ancestor.

As far "math doesn't support it", those efforts by creationists are based on wild assumptions that are invalid.

[timdel33]

Is that a sea skank that has evolved and now can walk on land??

[narby]

Ah yes, Inherit the Wind. One of the creepiest pieces of leftwing, Christianophobe propaganda ever churned out by Hollywood.

Because Christians handed them the ammunition to do it. And you IDiots are doing it again. Don't you ever learn?

[hawkaw]

Just on this site alone this is probably a start.

http://www.freerepublic.com/~patrickhenry/#List-O-Links

Here is another that can help some except those who wrongly think YEC or ID is science.

http://www.freerepublic.com/~ichneumon/

[Kleon]

Bottom line – evolution is not fact. It’s theory! And, contrary to Prof. Purrington’s remarks, the theory of intelligent design deserves just as much attention as evolution in the classroom.

Articles like this make me want to pull my hair out, and I'm not even a scientist. First of all, there's no such thing as the "theory" of intelligent design. To say there is suggests a complete lack of knowledge concerning scientific terms.

A scientific theory is a way of describing a process by examining and testing related events. It becomes a theory only when it gains widespread acceptance.

By its definition, a theory cannot become fact, but it's certainly more than conjecture.

[bluetone006]

"It's done all the time with fast reproducing critters. It's possible with larger creatures too, as long as you've got a few thousand years to wait."

Name a single study that has moved beyond variations in size, coloration or the like. Yes, with selective breeding, you can "create" (through the application of an external intelligence) difference "styles" of dogs. However, they are still dogs. All studies using fruit flies and the like have been even less successful. Not a single study eschewing specific external manipulation has seen a single positive mutation that was genetically transferred. If you had any concept of the complexity of the software that is DNA you wouldn't have made the statement you did.

Random chance made good sense in 1890. At this point it time it is a joke.

[conserv13]

Do you believe the Bible as fact?

[Cyclopean Squid]

It's one of my favorite movies. And I'm not sure how leftist it really is. At the end, Hornbeck, the smarmy journalist, is revealed to be a lonely and petty figure because he doesn't believe in anything. Brady got lost "looking for God too high up and too far away"--he forgot the everyday miracles, and the greatest gift of all from God--free will and the ability to think for oneself. And Drummond was "just as religious as [Brady] was"; the difference being that he could reconcile Darwin and the Bible.

It was an anti-fundamentalist film, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was anti-Christian.

[Tequila25]

"Genetic change within a population is not the same as one species becoming a different species."

From a science textbook.

"In fact, evolution can be precisely defined as any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one generation to the next."
- Helena Curtis and N. Sue Barnes, Biology, 5th ed. 1989 Worth Publishers, p.974

This is a fact. The theory of evolution is what covers how this happens and how it can create new species to explain the huge variations of life that exist.

[tallhappy]

Evolution is a ‘theory’ like gravity is a ‘theory

The above is a common psalm among religious evolutionites. Another example how they don't understand science at all, in this case basic physics.

[narby]

If you had any concept of the complexity of the software that is DNA you wouldn't have made the statement you did.

I do have a concept. And evolution still occurs. Deal with it.

[Right Wing Professor]

Gosh, this is moronic. So sub-atomic particles are in the Bible, eh?

Too bad. Human Events used to be a reputable conservative magazine.

[Tequila25]

"Not a single study eschewing specific external manipulation has seen a single positive mutation that was genetically transferred."

Doesn't need to be shown. All that needs to be shown is that the new population can no longer breed with the original. Bingo, new species.

Unless you have a better definition of what a species is.

[70times7]

Were those evolved or created?

[bobdsmith]

I'll have to do a lab study..