Replies

Thank you for your diligence regarding researching your claim. I obviously cannot speak for Mr. Sagan, but I will say that I personally would not debate the topics outlined by Mr. Warren either. Neither of the topics are affirmed by the position taken by the Theory of Evolution, nor are either of them denied by it. A debate such as that would serve no purpose save a demonstration of a battle of personal beliefs.

The interest I had in engaging you about this was to clarify that the words 'Theory of Evolution' are not linguistically interchangeable with the word 'evolution' itself. It may be all of this is simply a matter of the equivocation of that word. Alone, evolution is simply the descriptor of the process in which genetic mutation, combined with natural selection, cause heritable changes to a population. This process has been demonstrated and is therefore a fact. The ToE, on the other hand, is an overarching concept that encompasses much more than just the process of evolution. In its entirety, these points of data, evidence, and fact add up to a scientific theory. Possibly Mr. Sagan suspected the debate offered would not focus on that, but rather was going to be a theological and not a scientific one.

In response to your personal feelings shared in your last post, I see your entire argument being based on the biased premise that the Bible is indeed the true Word of God and therefore any evidence suggesting otherwise must be false by default. Further, you propose an argument from consequences by saying that the ToE simply can't be correct because if it is then morality itself is in jeopardy. Without arguing the validity of the consequence, I submit that it has absolutely no bearing on whether the ToE is correct. You finish with an eloquent rendition of Pascal's Wager, which again is arguing from consequence in saying that we should just go ahead and believe 'just to be safe'. You may be content with buying hope in the afterlife at the price of self-inflicted ignorance but I am not.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.

Thanks for the reply, however I in no way am simply taking a safe route as I firmly believe that the evidence is against the general theory of organic evolution. I was simply pointing out that beliefs have consequences, and you have quite correctly concluded that I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, however, I make no appelations to the Bible when considering the evidence for or against the theory. That is why I would like to see credentialed biologists meet on the polemic platform and discuss only the merits of the theory pro and con. I really don't understand why anyone would find such and exchange objectionable. Best regards.