The question is not whether Evolution is scientifically valid the question is whether or not it is science.?

Question

Is Evolution a "scientific" theory? Does it have the qualities of every other scientific theory. For example, can it predict anything that couldn't have been predicted before Darwin published his work? It dosen't seem as though darwinism can predict anything because darwinism can accomadate any scenario. As Karl Popper once said during a breif moment of honestly, if in an experiment you put some bacterium on an unihabited planet and left it there for 2 billion years, darwinism could account for whatever happened. If there were only a few simple organisms darwinism could explain. if there was nothing darwinism could explain. if there were advanced life forms darwinism could explain. A theory that can explain every conceivable scenario is not a scientific theory. A true scientific theory tells us about the way the world works, which means it must be able to predict. Much of what evolution DOES claim to predict are about changes WITHIN species that could have been made pre-darwin.

Answer 1

Are there so many people here so ignorant of science?
There are two aspects of theories: Predictive and Descriptive.

Evolution is a descriptive theory. It explains what happened.

Very few theories are able to predict a great deal in detail.

Gravity may be a law, but there is no way of predicting, when an apple falls from a tree, exactly what bruising or breaking of that apple will result.

Newtonian physics can predict the decay of an orbit of a satellite, but it won't be able to tell you where all the pieces will fall.

Evolution can predict some things. Using current evidence, we can predict that some drugs will become ineffectual against certain disease. We can predict that climate changes will result in very different plantscapes in the not so distant future.

To turn the table, what does the Bible predict about a 4% increrase in CO2 levels in the next 25 years?

What does it tell us will happen when the ocean stops freezing between islands in Northern Canada?

What is the Bible's explanation for the distribution of species across various continents?

How exactly does it explain that the descendents of Noah managed to gain access to the Americas?

What is the Biblical theory regarding the distribution of gasses in the polar ice caps that seem to indicate varying cycles of atmospheric gasses over many thousands of years?

Ignore science.
Trust fairy tales.
destroy a planet.
Wake up feeling good.

Answer 2

You know, if you take religion completely out of the picture, then it is distinctly possible that we were accidental in evolving.

The ingredients of our beginning could have been off by one or two elements and we might never have happened.

But the fact that we are here, (well, most of us are, anyway) has to be accepted and how we got here is even now being debated.

If you factor religion into it, there is an explanation that is the consensus of most of the world.

Believing that God originally created man fit the circumstances and relieved everyone of the burning question of where we came from.

Now, that we understand the physical and biological makeup of living things and know what it takes to create life changed the long held idea of God as being the creator. It was possible that it did occur just like scientists say it did, and we started from a gooey slime in a swamp somewhere. And yes, it is possible God had a hand in it. But realiistically, it would have been possible without God too.

I don't know if Evolution is a scientifically valid or not, but some credibility has to be accepted as to what happened, and the Darwin theory only deals within certain perameters.

Answer 3

yes, it is a scientific theory. If the bacterium had CHANGED structurally or given rise to other forms of life, then yes, it does exactly what evolution predicts it will do. It would fail (THERE IS A WAY IT COULD FAIL), if you went back 2 billion years later and the bacterium were the exact same, AND WERE THE ONLY LIFE FORM THERE.
-Here is one simple thing to consider that PROVES evolution occurs. Looking back through history, you can easily see that some species have gone extinct. I truly hope you are not going to debate this FACT. Obviously some species go extinct. So how come the Earth CURENTLY has more species on it than ever before? If new species were not being continually developed, then there would be a finite number of species, and as they went extinct the diversity of life would NARROW, not INCREASE, as it obviously does! What could possibly be a reasonable explanation for this by a creationist? That God is continually adding new species to our planet without us ever taking notice? OF COURSE NOT.
Evolution happens, get over it. 20 years from now, creationism will be a thing of the past.

Answer 4

Karl Popper's "breif (sic) moment of honestly (sic)"!!!!!!!!

What kind of comment is that? Are you saying that most of what he said was dishonest? Was he lying when he wrote:

"I see in modern Darwinism the most successful explanation of the relevant facts" ("The Poverty of Historicism" p. 106)

or

"a brilliant SCIENTIFIC hypothesis" (my emphasis). ("The Poverty of Historicism" p. 106)

Popper denied it was a THEORY as it did not fit his definition of theory, the definition of theory being a key part of his philosophy of science. Its a technical point. Popper likens evolution to a medical diagnosis. ("The Poverty of Historicism" p.107) Now if your doctor diagnoses you with an illness which suggests a certain course of treatment you are not going to doubt him on the basis that it doesn't fit in with Popper's view on formulating unviersal laws! Still less are you going to start questioning whether his diagnostic tools are science or not!

Answer 5

The current Theory of Evolution is not Darwinism, that was only its starting point.

Answer 6

Changes within species will eventually lead to changes of species. If selection pressures cause a drastic shift in the form of a species they will evolve, why is that so difficult to understand?

Answer 7

Agree

Answer 8

No

It has a set of "proofs" that make it a likelihood.

Those "proofs" however, come from plants, insects and viruses. Not from dogs, cats, monkeys or humans.

There has been NO VIDEO DOCUMENTARY PROOF of how a GENE changes or evolves.

It's still specualtion, but they do have some "end results" in the plant and insect world.

And the PLANT results started with a CAtholic Abbot!

Answer 9

Evolutionist are always looking for a way to convince themselves of foolish things in spite of evidence to the contrary.

Evolutionists invent all sorts of things as they go along.....everytime something doesn't work out right they invent another theory to keep it current with the latest discovers which keep invalidating their last assumption....it is really laughable

Answer 10

Anatomic taxonomy predicted genetic homology with astounding accuracy.