Posted on 06/13/2002 12:57:29 PM PDT by medved
Jorge A. Fernandez
© 2002 by Jorge A. Fernandez. All Rights Reserved. [Last Modified: 13 June 2002]
The Talk.Origins (TO) website (http://www.Talk.Origins.org) is promoted, among other things, as an educational site, a place for obtaining information on evolution and answers to the numerous criticisms to this theory. Although TO states that it is a "forum for discussion"-presumably unbiased-much evidence testifies to the contrary. I've been observing the TO site from the sidelines for quite some time and have until now restrained myself from responding to the materialistic worldview that this organization pushes on the unsuspecting. It is particularly distressing to me to read the feedback letters from young people and watching those impressionable minds being manipulated through TO indoctrination.
To be fair, and to emphasize that this is not a witch-hunt, I must say that some of the volunteers at TO undoubtedly have good intentions and are sincere in their efforts. However, in this particular arena good intentions and sincerity are not enough (I'll return to this point at the end of the article). The full, unbiased disclosure of truth is what is essential here and TO doesn't even come close to providing it. In any event, this article is my first, albeit brief, critique of the Talk.Origins site and I herein intend to expose some of what TO doesn't tell its readers.
I should begin by saying that almost immediately after deciding to write these words I was overcome with a sense of awe at the magnitude of the task-let me explain:
Talk.Origins is very hard to target-a fact that may be so by design. For example, if a person disagrees with TO on the 'fact of evolution', these people will employ a definition of evolution ["Biological evolution is a change in the genetic characteristics of a population over time"] that makes it impossible to disagree and, if one does argue, then that person comes across as being uninformed or irrational or fanatical. This might be acceptable if only it remained right there.
But it doesn't! That statement about evolution (which happens to be accurate, i.e., genetic characteristics of populations do vary over time) is subsequently modified / extended throughout TO's many articles and feedback responses so that not only is the person to accept the (empirically corroborated) fact of change, but also that this change is the sole causing agent for the diversity and complexity within an organism (internal organs, cellular structures, etc.) as well as outside of the organism including Earth's entire flora and fauna. The metaphysical extrapolation of the data that is required to accomplish this feat is somehow missed by TO-either by ignorance or by design. What's more, if we are to remain exclusively within the natural (material) realm then the term 'evolution' must somehow be further extended to include life from non-life, i.e., the emergence of life itself must also be accounted for by the ever-stretching definition of evolution.
There's more. The origin of the basic materials that make up all objects (living or not) must also somehow be accounted for so yet other forms of evolution enter the scene-chemical, stellar and planetary. In fact, the universe itself must also be accounted for by evolution. Thus, whether they hypothesize a Big Bang, a quantum fluctuation, aliens from another dimension or some other natural explanation, the universe began and has 'evolved' to what it is today.
Few would argue with the notion that 'things change.' But to take the step from 'things change' to 'and therefore, that's how it all got here' is a leap of blind, irrational faith that would send even the most fanatical snake worshipper reeling.
This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.
Yeah. I agree. A preposition is a very bad thing to end a sentence with!
It worked.
8^D
Originally liberals were social conservatives who advocated growth and progess mostly technological(knowledge being absolute/unchanging)based on law--reality...the nature of man/govt. does not change.
Atheist secular materialists through evolution removed the foundations...made the absolutes relative and call all technology evolution(science) to substantiate their efforts--claims...social engineering--PC!
Liberals/Evolution BELIEVE they are the conservatives too!
What's left?
The guy does a pretty good job of dissecting t.o and exposing it for what it actually is. My own experiences with the t.o FAQs is that they do not come remotely close to withstanding any sort of a close examination.
“I can think of no better illustration of this than the case of intelligent design theory (ID). Leaving out numerous details, ID is having a difficult time being accepted into the scientific establishment as a bona fide scientific theory simply because it has metaphysical—in fact theistic—implications. After all, if the logical conclusion is that specified and complex design is present, then a designer is the only available option and the big ‘G’ immediately enters the realm of possibilities. Naturalists were quick to pick up on this rather obvious and, to them, highly unpalatable conclusion and as a result ID is being treated by many as if it were advocating the practice of human sacrifices.”
“The fact of the matter is that ID is as robust a scientific theory as one should reasonably expect, having all of the components—foundation, logical/mathematical formulation, explanatory/predictive power, etc.—that other widely accepted scientific theories have. For more details on this I recommend two sources: The Design Inference, Cambridge University Press, 1998 by William Dembski and Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology, InterVarsity Press, 1999 also by William Dembski.”
“To summarize this point, ID is not being scorned because it is bad science or illogical, but because it crosses the line that separates one metaphysical worldview from another. The “people in charge”, i.e., the naturalistic scientific establishment, are unwilling to allow that to happen—naturalism must be protected at all costs, from their point of view. Why doesn’t TO mention or elaborate on any of this to its readers? Deception by omission.”
ID does not specify any religious faith. I know an atheist who believes ID over molecular evolution just based on facts. (and is really starting to question the whole theory of evolution) He is not an intellectual slouch either. Even the Christian evolutionist believes that life exists because of an Intelligent Designer.
Anyway, the only religion that is totally opposed to ID are Naturalists. And their opposition is clearly not based upon science.
As far as the ability to 'falsify' evolution consider the following:
- Nobel laureate Dr. Francis Crick promotes 'directed panspermia' (i.e., 'DNA originated somewhere 'out in space' and somehow made its way to Earth') since it is clear (to Crick) that no earthly cause for DNA is scientifically reasonable.
- Richard Dawkins (The Blind Watchmaker, W. W. Norton, New York, 1986) assumes the number (10^20 by his accounting) of theoretically possible planets that may exist in the universe in order to provide sufficient opportunities for the highly improbable event of life to occur naturally (i.e., without intelligent direction).
- Barrow and Tipler (The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, Oxford University Press, 1986) go far beyond Dawkins in that they invoke entire universes (theoretical, of course) as the potential arenas for (natural) life to emerge. Kauffman (The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution, Oxford, 1993) takes a different route than Dawkins, Barrow and Tipler.
- Kauffman brings into the panorama a hypothetical set of laws by which life may emerge here on Earth solely through (only) natural process.
Now, some may choose to argue that these distinguished gentlemen are simply doing 'science'-proposing theories to explain observations, among other things. However...
The term to remember here was 'falsifiable'-and, to take just one example, we might ask ourselves how one goes about falsifying an infinite number of universes.
Here's the point to all of this:
If we are allowed to propose essentially anything (aliens, parallel universes, 10^20 planets, extra dimensions, time travel, etc., etc.) in order to uphold our theory then how will it ever be possible for that theory to be truly falsifiable? As clever and imaginative as we humans are, wouldn't we be able to-don't we-contrive just about anything that would allow us to retain the position or theory that we cherish?Well, not always. All human cleverness and imagination could not save the phlogiston theory, the notion of blood humors, the geocentric model, and many other now defunct ideas. There is, however, one major difference where evolution is concerned-a difference that makes evolution impervious to that which toppled these aforementioned and now extinct ideas. That difference is the intimate and critical connection between evolution and philosophical naturalism-a metaphysical (i.e., religious) connection.
As the universally recognized and accepted authority on what is admissible as 'scientifically valid', the scientific establishment (anchored in naturalism) has constructed the rules so that evolution is the de facto answer. This matter may be expanded in many directions so I'll end on this note: eliminate evolution and what are the remaining options? Naturalists know well that to eliminate evolution is to eliminate the single possibility for a natural explanation of the origin of life and of biodiversity. Therefore, evolution must be sustained even if this requires hypothesizing the preposterous or the unfalsifiable. The only other alternative, the supernatural, is simply not admissible.
That's not "famously convoluted"; it's basically just English words with quasi-German grammar. The simplest examples are order of time and place. An English-speaking person thinks "I have to be at John's at 9 PM"; if he forgets anything, it's the second part of the deal, i.e. when he's supposed to be at John's. A German on the other hand thinks "Ich muss um acht Uhr bei Johannes sein"; if HE forgets anything, it will be where the hell he's supposed to be at eight o-clock.
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