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To: Ichneumon

I'm sure we would all find articles stating that scientists disagree on any number of things. But what's the point?


620 posted on 02/01/2006 12:37:44 PM PST by mlc9852
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To: mlc9852
I'm sure we would all find articles stating that scientists disagree on any number of things. But what's the point?

I'll mindread, and suggest that you are trying to imply that because scientists disagree, often violently, about matters of detail in their respective fields, that makes science somehow subjective or less valuable or flawed. Physicists will have extremely heated arguments about the nature of quantum mechanics, biologists and geneticists will have heated arguments about the precise mechanisms of "descent with modification", all fields have their contentious areas. Indeed the heat of the debate amongst real scientists can at times make the schoolyard spats that we have here in FR seem quite feeble.

What you are missing however is that these disputes are about detail. The big picture is not in doubt except in completely new fields. Even when Newtonian Mechanics was overturned by Einstein it didn't change the fact that Newtonian Mechanics is correct for most real-world purposes. Frenzied arguments about quantum mechanics don't invalidate quantum mechanics per se. It would be a bit unfortunate if they did, because the computer that you are sitting at reading these words relies on that science being substantially correct. Likewise frenzied arguments between experts about evolutionary mechanisms like punkeek or the precise positions of certain fossils on the phylogenetic tree don't invalidate evolution, which is so solidly grounded in reality and observation as to be beyond dispute.

Even the scientists pushing ID into the classroom from the Discovery Institute are united and quite clear in their acceptance of the evidence supporting common descent, a fact that most of their cheerleaders find it convenient to ignore. Some new paradigm might come along and overturn evolution, but just as Newtonian Mechanics remains correct for most real-world purposes (all those bridges didn't collapse when Einstein pointed out where Newton was wrong), any new theory of evolution will for most purposes have to resemble the current one so closely as to be barely distinguishable, or it won't be able to explain the existing data. That's how science works, it adjusts its theories to fit results and observations, but the more observations you've got, the more certain you can be that your theory is substantially correct. Evolution is amongst the most solidly grounded of all scientific knowledge, supported as it is by literally millions of data points and successful predictions.

629 posted on 02/01/2006 1:34:25 PM PST by Thatcherite (More abrasive blackguard than SeaLion or ModernMan)
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