Is evolution really fact?

Question

Seems many people today say the theory of evolution is now a fact. Do you believe this to be true? If so, why? And, what evidence do you have to back up your belief? Just so we're clear... I am not refering to that part of observable science called natural selection. I'm referring to evolution (you know "molecules evolving into man" historical science type stuff). Oh, and if you have the name of the scientific article or report that states that evolution is now fact, please provide it. I would love to check it out. Thanks!

Natural selection is not the same as evolution... look it up and do your homework.

Moiraes Fate... my high school taught serveral different views on this subject; they chose not to brainwash us to believe just one view.

Hmmm... so far, no one is willing to say why they believe what they believe. Could it be that you blindly believe something about evolution and really don't have proof to back up your claim.

Answer 1

There is really and truly, ONLY ONE "evolution" of ANY kind. It's what The Holy Bible says is the slow release of information by God, to people. This is why we went THOUSANDS of years without cars and planes. THOUSANDS of years without penicillin. THOUSANDS of years without PASTEURIZED MILK. Men's and women's HEIGHT increased over the years, but, in truth, evolution is just a fable written by rebellious people trying to impose their will of atheism on the world of the faithful of Jesus Christ.

REBELLION IS WORSE THAN WITCHCRAFT!

Answer 2

Firstly you have mis-ordered importance between "fact" and "theory" in the realm of science. The semantics are a little different between the scientific and non-scientific definitions. In the scientific world, facts are details; theories organize details in a manor that makes scientific sense. In that respect, theory is far more important than fact.

First you have a bunch of facts that seem to be connected. Second, you form a hypothesis to explain this correlation. Then you test your hypotheses to see if it is correct...and retest it....and retest it....and retest it. After you are fairly convinced after numerable experiments that your hypothesis is correct, you write an article or paper or submission to a scientific journal or other accredited scientific academy for peer review. Then other scientists try to reproduce your results...then re-reproduce your results...then RE-reproduce your results. Now, ONLY after all this scrutiny, do you have a theory.

The "theory" of Universal Gravitation (Newton) organizes facts observed about the world and the universe. Evolution does the same.

Now, onto molecules becoming man

Organic compounds required for life, not just to exist but to keep existing, (mainly proteins and amino acids) were not present on the Earth long ago. The Miller-Urey experiment [1] conducted in 1953 consisted of a sterilized environment containing the primitive atmosphere of earth (mainly water, ammonia, hydrogen and methane). They added a little lightning and guess what came to be in this murky substance? That's right, amino acids. 13 of the 22 required amino acids required to make proteins had come out of this experiment.
The experiment was proof that organic substance could come out of inorganic mater that is common throughout the universe.

The theory is that molecules continued to combine at random until, at one point, a molecule formed that could replicate itself. (self replicating molecules have been created in the lab by reacting 2 other molecules, for example: see->[2]). This is not DNA or even RNA, but rather an ancestor. Groupes of these molecules got together, as they were repelled by water on one side and attracted by it on the other, into a kind of sphere. This formed what we now call, today, the nucleus of a cell, though the cell was still a long way off. The collection of molecules kept the resources they needed to make more of themselves within the molecular sphere. The self replicating molicuels made more and more of themselves, random changes (likely resorting from errors due to simple mistakes or radiological interference), until either RNA or DNA was formed.

From then on, all you need do is crack a biology book.


Anyway to answer your question. No, in the strictest sense, evolution is not a fact. It is a theory that links together all the facts under it into a uniform matter that better explains how things came to be better than any other theory there is. You said you wanted an article or something that stated that evolution is a fact. Read or watch "Carl Sagan's - The Cosmos", he states it flat out: "Evolution is a fact, not a theory". Using the words in different order here are simple a matter of semantics. As I said, fact and Theory mean different things to the Scientific and Non-Scientific world, and he was trying to convey the message the best way he could.

There have been 70 Nobel Prizes handed out for work that supports evolution, and 0 handed out on work that contradicts it.

Now good science is ALWAYS open to change. So it may actually turn out that evolution is not the way it actually happened, but science does not operate on what MIGHT be, it operates on what is. And "what is" is only understood to the level of intelligence of the era in which it is being studied.

Personally I don't think that evolution will ever be discounted as being wrong; but I am willing to accept the possibility.


Addendum:
Professor Richard Dawkin's lectures on the subject are very interesting, I highly recommend them:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DrMontague
they are there, if a bit jumbled.

Answer 3

It seems that you are under the same misconception that many others have about scientific theories. A theory is a scientific explanation about a particular physical phenomenon. It is not just an "educated guess" like many people think it is. That is the way we use the word in everyday life, but in science, the word has a very specific connotation. Scientists never use the word theory to describe an explanation of phenomena unless it is very firmly established by the evidence, which is exactly what evolution is. I recommend that you take some college-level biology courses if you are of college age. It is a lack of scientific knowledge that causes people to make claims like this.
.

Answer 4

Firstly, you have to understand what "theory" actualy means in Science. It is NOT an idea, or a guess. A theory is an established priciple, backed up by evidence which applies to all known situations. So, in reality "theory" and "fact" are the same thing.

You cannot separate evolution from natural selection. Natural selection is the force that causes evolution to happen.

Go on the web, or go to a natural history museum. The evidence for the theory is now overwhelming.

Answer 5

There is the fact of evolution and the theory of evolution. One is that it's been shown to be happening right now, the other is how it occurs. The latter is a theory, not a fact.

There is also the fact of gravity and the theory of gravity. The theory of gravity is about how gravity works, and isn't proven.

Does this make sense?

That animals evolved from each other is as strongly supported as virtually anything, however, certain people who take their religious texts literally see this as a threat so deny it without ever studying it.

Answer 6

Evolution is as close to fact as you're going to find on this subject.

I've read all the counter-claims and read evidence on both sides for the past 25 years, and there has never been a single credible attack that has undermined evolution's position as the best scientific theory going.

I don't carry around a desository of copies or links of all the sources on both sides that I've come across. If you're truly interested in weighing both sides, it's a journey you can begin at your local library.

Answer 7

NO evolution is not true and can not be proven to be true. On the other hand I guess you can't prove creation either. However I have a much harder time believing that we all came from some fish in the ocean that grew legs over time then decided to crawl up on land and eventually over millions of years became man. That for me is just too far fetched. Or that one day there was a "big bang" and voila here we all are everything miraculously came together to create all of us. I mean is someone gave you a watch and they said guess what one day all these parts just fell together into place all by itself you would think he was crazy. There is nothing today that you can look at that was not created by some body. How can we just believe the the whole earth, and all the plants, animals just all of a sudden came together by accident? For me that is just much to hard to believe than creation. Creation makes more sense to me.

Answer 8

Evolution has never been a theory, and natural selection has never been observed. It's the other way round evolution is an observed fact natural selection is a logical analysis of the evidence and explains how evolution occurs.

Answer 9

Evolution is fact. It's been observed. The origin of the varied species on Earth is broader theory of evolution. Or course, what you're talking about isn't evolution -- it's the origin of life. In the strict sense, evolution only starts after life arises. You can try to muddle issues together, but that bland Creationist device has been done to death.

Answer 10

This is the same question as the following:
1. Is quantum physics theory fact?
2. Is relativity theory fact?
3. Is gravitational theory fact?
They are ALL scientific models ('theory' is a horrible term because of the fact that it has both a scientific and a layman's definition which are COMPLETELY different). The ONLY reason evolution is singled out from the above is because fundamentalists feel threatened by it. If they understood quantum physics, they'd feel doubly threatened by it and probably try -- as Einstein did -- to disprove it (he was unsuccessful).

Answer 11

A theory is an idea supported by tested and proven *facts* that suggest the theory is true.

Facts that support evolution include:
-Fossils
-Genetic Evidence (all the way down in our DNA)
-We can watch evolution in bacteria and other organisms and have found proof of it in other animals, too.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/evolution-fact.html

They actually have a journal where studies are published:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622882/description#description

A bunch of scientific papers:
http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/index.html