Originally posted by josephw
Hey fellas, I know what evolution is and where it came from and all that. But is there proof? You know, the kind of proof that nobody can deny.
There seems to be no proof for the existance of God, at least not given here in this forum, so has evolution been proven here in the forum beyond a doubt?
Can you see what I'm getting at?
You are unintentionally confusing two ideas: evidence and proof. There are many, many things
that we accept as true based on overwhelming evidence and in the absence of conclusive proof.
For example, I suppose it is possible that the moon landings were hoaxes, that the movies were
forged, that the moon rocks were fake, that Neil Armstrong and friends were paid off by the
government, but there is a lot of evidence to allow us to dismiss that conclusion with a highly
reasonable certainty.
Science relies on the ability to test and retest hypotheses. If I perform an experiment with
identical materials under identical conditions, I should get identical results. Now, parsimony dictates
that if I do this 100 times, that it wasn't magic or coincidence or secret invisible unicorns that made
the results identical, and that the 101st time things won't be totally different. The presumption is,
if something does differ on the 101st time, there was some variable unaccounted for -- temperature,
clean test tubes, time spent percolating, &c.
The theory of evolution relies on the
independent accounts of several different scientific
approaches -- chemistry, physics, geology, paleontology, genetics, physiology, and so forth. None
of the sciences point to any other conclusion than the earth is very old, that it was barren of life
for billions of years, that the first, simple organisms gave rise to more complex ones, and that we
are descended through an excruciatingly complicated series of random, but constrained events. Are
there gaps in the knowledge? Absolutely. That's why it's not a 'Law of Evolution,' I suppose.
However, it is a very strongly supported theory.
Think of it this way: What happened to us is like a puzzle. We have a whole bunch of pieces to the
puzzle, but not all of them. Chemistry allows us to interpret some pieces, biology some others,
physics a few more. As our facility in these disciplines increases, so will our ability to interpret
pieces. The pieces we have are forming a reasonably clear picture: Evolution. Yes, there are many
gaps (holes in the fossil record, e.g.), and, yes, sometimes we put a piece in the wrong place (err
in interpreting data), and, unfortunately, sometimes we force a piece to go where it shouldn't (e.g.,
Piltdown man). But, the first is addressed by continuing to research, the second and third by the
scientific process of peer review and retesting claims.
Can I prove that we evolved? No, neither I nor anyone on this forum or the world can. Can we
provide you with mountains of independently derived evidence all of which point to a single conclusion?
Yes.
Nemesio
Is there proof for...
28 Mar '07 02:06
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