Posted on 05/23/2002 10:38:31 AM PDT by Condorman
The Cobb County statement
"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically examined."
And now a word from the author
Kenneth Miller is a Brown University biology professor and one of the most prominent voices in the science community's debate against intelligent design creationism. He also happens to be the author of one of the textbooks -- "Prentice Hall Biology" -- in which Cobb County will place disclaimers that warn students about evolution.
So what does Miller think about the decision to put the statements in the textbooks? He suggests Cobb County's logic is seriously flawed:
"Evolution is a theory. It is a theory in the same sense as the atomic theory of matter or the germ theory of disease. This is what scientists mean by theories: In the scientific hierarchy, theories are higher than fact, because theories explain facts. Facts are simply individual, isolated, verifiable observations or experimental results.
"For example, is it fact that the sun is shining in the sky where I am right now? Yes. Is it a fact that in an hour the sun will have apparently moved its position? Yeah. That's a fact as well. Is it a fact that the moon will rise a little bit later today after the sun sets? Yeah. So you have all these facts. How can we put all these facts together? The Copernican theory of the solar system, the heliocentric theory of the solar system, is a theory that makes sense of all these facts.
"Evolution is a theory that makes sense of millions of facts of natural history -- the age of the earth, the succession of fossils in the fossil record, the genetic capabilities of organisms -- and as such it ties things together in an extraordinary way that has been equaled by few theories in biology.
"Should evolution be critically examined? Yes. Everything in science should be critically examined. If the disclaimer were to urge that all scientific theories should be critically examined with an eye toward the evidence and contrary points of views and so forth, it would have my complete agreement.
"The one mistake that I see in the disclaimer is singling out evolution as apparently the only theory that should be critically examined in science. There are counter-arguments to just about everything in science, including general and special relativity, which are still highly controversial in physics, but nonetheless we teach because they are the best and most widely applicable, generally acceptable theories. The mistake of the disclaimer is to single out [evolution] for special attention and special criticism as if it alone among scientific theories is uniquely weak, uniquely shaky or uniquely suspect. That is definitely not the case."
05.22.02
From the main story: "The problem is intelligent design theory (IDT), which allows that evolution has occurred but asserts life was started by a creator, isn't science or a theory. It's more a list of arguments against Darwinian evolution at life's most basic level."
See also the small section on Answering Intelligent Design.
NO! anything with a future time is NOT a fact, it is a projection, or a postulate. A fact is something that HAS happened, and you have unarguable evidence that it happened.
In the example given, what if a really big meteor hit the earth at an angle that changed the earth's rotation rate from 24 hours to 365 days. There would be tidal waves and earthquakes and chaos, but next hour the sun would not have moved. So much for that fact.
Allow me to step into the role of proofreader and editor for Mr. Miller and rewrite the statement to "Is it a fact that the sun has apparently moved its position from an hour ago? Yeah."
The thrust of his argument is unchanged.
Absolutely true. The real problem is that we teach science so poorly. All science below the college (probably grad school) level is oversimplified to the point of inaccuracy.
I second the motion Mr. Chairman! And I would add that religion in public schools is not taught at all.
No worry - he is likely to get it.
The "Copernican theory" is no longer a theory (call the guys in the Space Shuttle and bloody well ask them). It is an established fact. Evolution remains a theory since it can be neither proved nor disproved. Attempting to equate the two is intellectually dishonest.
My, but how the evolutionists scream when their precious little orthodoxy is challenged in any manner. Sheesh!
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