Why Evolution Should Be Taught

by hamilcarr 360 Replies latest jw friends

  • Deputy Dog
    Deputy Dog
    "So, what tests would you propose to falsify evolution?" I don't have to propose any. Better minds than mine have been doing so for over a hundred years.

    Appeal to authority?

    If you can't think of any, than you must admit that evolution is not science. It is religion/philosophy.

  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips
    It is more proven than the theory of gravity.

    Now lets not get carried away.

  • Junction-Guy
    Junction-Guy

    That doesn't explain how we got here, only changes in time. The big bang theory--God spoke, and bang it happened.

  • funkyderek
    funkyderek

    Junction-Guy:

    That doesn't explain how we got here, only changes in time. The big bang theory--God spoke, and bang it happened.

    Try to stay on topic. We're discussing your ignorance of biology. No need to bring up your ignorance of physics too.

  • hamilcarr
    hamilcarr
    So, what tests would you propose to falsify evolution?

    DNA analysis.

    If human DNA differed extensively from primate's DNA, common descent would be falsified.

    The same is true for mammals and the animal world as a whole. As a matter of fact, DNA confirmed earlier hypotheses on common descent.

  • BurnTheShips
    BurnTheShips
    If you can't think of any, than you must admit that evolution is not science. It is religion/philosophy.

    Biological evolution is science. It is a scientific theory with explanatory and predictive power. If it did not have this power, it would be useless and discarded.

    However, the application of Darwinism in other fields of knowledge is not science, properly speaking but belongs in the realm of philosophy, as you note..

    BTS

  • hamilcarr
    hamilcarr
    People survived the holocaust--eyewitnesses

    There are eyewitnesses of evolutionary mechanisms.

    For instance, we are causing animals to evolve just by hunting them. The North Atlantic cod fishery has caused the evolution of cod that mature smaller and younger than they did 40 years ago. Fishing for grayling in Norwegian lakes has caused a similar pattern in these fish. Human trophy hunting for bighorn rams has caused the population to evolve into one of smaller-horn rams. (All of which, incidentally, is in line with evolutionary predictions.)

    Conversely, hunting animals to extinction may cause evolution in their former prey species. Experiments on guppies have shown that, without predators, these fish evolve more brightly colored scales, mature later, bunch together in shoals less and lose their ability to suddenly swim away from something. Such changes can happen in fewer than five generations. If you then reintroduce some predators, the population typically goes extinct.

  • MissingLink
    MissingLink
    So what's your agenda?

    How about - To make the world a bit less ignorant (epecially the southern states).

    I'd say more, but I think Derek's got it covered. Good man.

  • Deputy Dog
    Deputy Dog

    derek

    So, what tests would you propose to falsify evolution?

    1) J. B. S. Haldane's "Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian" comes to mind, but any life form in an inappropriate stratum of rock would do.

    Would it do? Or would you simply say that the rock must have been misidentified? Or, you would say that it has a rabbit in it, so it can’t be Precambrian.

    When things are found together that shouldn't be, the "theory" is simply modified.

    2) A single example of demonstrably irreducible complexity in any biological system.

    That's easy, just look at the simplest living cell. It's so simple that you can't duplicate it.

    3) A single (moderately long) sequence of DNA that appeared in organisms from different clades but not on all organisms within a clade.

    I'm not quite sure what you're getting at with that one.

    4) Diseases not mutating to become resistant to the most common forms of treatment.

    This happens most of the time when people get well.

    5) Bacteria in a petri dish not adapting to a change in environment under controlled conditions.

    Why would anyone want to try such a thing? it is hardly an example of evolution. Bacteria change all the time, but, they are still bacteria. They don't evolve into any other form of life.

  • MissingLink
    MissingLink

    I'm coming to the conclusion that there are a lot of people who just aren't going to "get it". The interresting thing is why.

    1. Is it an overwhelming need for there to be a god who's in control? Is the wold too scary otherwise?
    2. Or do they just not get the science bit? The fact that this IS as proven as gravity and a round earth.

    If it's just that they haven't been exposed to the science, then education will be the answer to this shocking state some contries are in.

    But if its the first reason, then I just don't know if those people can be helped. They don't want to be helped. Seems to be a pattern . . . .

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