Is evolution no longer a theory?

Question

Is evolution now fact? Do you believe this? 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!

Answer 1

Evolution is still just a theory. Nobody has proven it and the fact is no one can. There is more proof against it as there is supporting it.

"Many ...believe in evolution for the simple reason that they think science has proven it to be a `fact' and, therefore, it must be accepted... In recent years, a great many people...having finally been persuaded to make a real examination of the problem of evolution, have become convinced of its fallacy and are now convinced anti-evolutionists."
-- Henry Morris, former evolutionist.

The problem is that evolutionists believe we should teach their ideas in schools but, not the theory of intelligent creation (the truth) because religion and science should remain separated.
which is pretty convenient for them if I do say so myself.

Below is a list of four references that prove why evolution is not true.

I hope my answer helps.

May God bless you.

LLAP!

Answer 2

Considering that this is supposed to be a philosophy section, these answers are pretty pathetic.

First define your terms!

In science, a "theory" is an idea which has a great deal of supporting evidence but can not be proved absolutely because of the nature of the idea - for instance - we believe that the center of the earth is composed of extremely hot metal. That is still a theory! No one has ever been to the center of the earth, nor ever will go there so it will always be just a theory. Evolution is a theory because a) there is a huge supporting mass of evidence that is very widely accepted. Virtually every university in the world that has a department of biology teaches evolution (e.g. BYU, Duke, Harvard, SMU, Wake Forest, etc etc ). Many of the top ranked universities have entire departments or sections of evolution (Notre Dame, Princeton). But b) all of these folks are completely aware that there is no way to go back in time to observe the creation of the universe. So they rely on observations that are made in geophysics and astrophysics to indicate how they think the origin of the universe took place. Overwhelmingly the evidence suggests that the universe is extremely old and cannot possibly be only a few thousand years as the Bible fairly explicity suggests. And this view has been endorsed over and over and over by every major scientific organization in the world.

A 'fact' is something stated to be true. There are facts which are highly reliable and in which we have a very high level of confidence, and other facts that we are very much less confident of. Evolution is a fact in this sense, as is confirmed by the long lists of scientists and science organizations that endorse it. I dont believe there are any science organizations that do NOT endorse evolution except for those that are explicitly faith based and who take it as a religious duty to disprove evolution - so they hardly count as "scientific", do they?

Last summer a conservative republican judge appointed by President Bush threw out the PA case calling for anti-evolution teaching in science classes. He gave the fundamentalists who wanted to teach anti-evolution a tongue lashing, called them liars and reprimanded them for wasting the courts time. That pretty much sums up the status of anti-evolution int he USA at the moment.

Answer 3

In the scientific method, there is no official category such as 'law' or 'fact'. Thus, there were never be an 'official' declaration of such. Every theory can - in theory - be disproved. There are, however, many theories that are so well established that even if some section of them were disproved, it's not likely they would be completely overturned.

Take, for example, Newton's laws of gravitation. Those were disproved when Einsteinian physics came along. Yet they are still in use, largely because Einstein's addendums to the rules have no significant effect much of the time.

The same too might be said for evolution. There are few biologists indeed who feel there is not sufficient evidence to refer to the PROCESS of evolution as a fact or a law. And yes, by that I mean right down from the molecules if you like. Most biologists believe that any further innovations on how evolution works will be more on the order of elaboration than revolution.

Yet I know of no reputable biologist who would claim that knowledge of the entire pathway that evolution took is anywhere near the realm of law or fact. Lack of knowledge of one hardly violates the other... just because you know exactly how a car operates, it hardly means that you know where it's been driven. We may never know the path that evolution took on our planet for sure.

But not knowing the path doesn't mean there isn't one. Below is an okay article saying roughly the same thing, but at greater length.

Answer 4

Evolution will never BECOME a fact. A "fact" pertains to the state of the world, as "evolution" in its common usage refers to a historical state of the world then it either is or isn't fact: we either evolved from goo or we did not. That's what facts are, why we use the term "brute facts" - they have nothing to do with us, our wishes, research, beliefs or our scientific articles. "The world is round" is a fact and has always been fact even when people thought it was flat.

If we talk about "fact" we are, in effect, saying "you should accept this as fact". Scientific journals put forward theories, research, arguments etc. They are not the place to find pronouncments about what should or should not be accepted without further deabte - you'll get THAT sort of thing from a fundie pastor.

Answer 5

I believe that evolution is fact, this is for one simple and irrefutable reason. NO other true theory about the origins of life has been put forward.

Creation is a belief, but has no scientific basis behind it. The creationist will say that I believe that a divinity (normally god) created us, this however does not explain how or, as in this very special case, why. It is a belief that has been presented as fact.

I personally believe that there is a creator but that he used evolution to get us to where we are now (bi-pedal, two arms, tool creating brains, etc.) however present this theory to a creationist and they will shoot you down in flames.

The true reason why people don't want to accept evolution is that it will lower them to the rank of animals, something that we have been taught since day one that we are better than because we are human. If evolution is true then they are no better than animals, we kill animals for sport and food, keep them in zoos and generally mistreat them, something that would be abhorrent to do to a human. But if humans where no better than animals, what does this mean for everything t hat they have held dear (the truth is nothing). It presents a problem that they can't solve.

Evolutionists can be just as stubborn, to say that there is a creator is to say that they would be responsible to someone. They don't like that idea as if someone is looking over their shoulder. What they don't realise is that they are already responsible to many different people, what is one more?

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

The Theory of evolution is the framework in which all the facts put into. Not every single part of the evolutionary theory is fact, some of it is theory (the laymans definition of theory) to fill in the spaces where the knowlage is lacking, thus that is where scientific investigation comes in. If a certain part is shown to be wrong, or obviously untestible it is no longer seen as scientific and is no longer seen as part of the Theory.

Biological evolution is a fact yes. It is also a fact that humans decedned from a common ancestor (concestor) as other modern day apes.

"...humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered." - Stephen J. Gould

I am not sure if I answered your question so I will include some links I hope prove useful.

I recommend reading the first link then the second one if you wish to read deeper into the subject.

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

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

Hope I helped some, even if I didnt completly answer your question as fully as you might have liked.

Answer 7

Even some scientific "laws" are open to revision, so I'd say that it is theory and have no reason presented to me to think otherwise. I don't recall any scientific articles presenting evolution as now "fact," but I have encountered atheists that hold the religious belief that it is "true."
I suppose the recent news about a four-legged duck is supposed to convince some people that the atheist believers are right, but it seems to me that religious belief means holding onto beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. I see the duck as evidence in the ongoing trial that is the theory of evolution. Is it absolute proof? Not really, but it's persuasive evidence.

Now, I have heard that at least one Biology instructor (a prof? I hope not!) at my university went so far as to insist that he could disprove the existance of God. I don't know about that. I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to debate the topic with him taking the opposite side. It would have been fun.

Now, evolution *could* be a fact, as in a part of absolute reality, but I'm agnostic and hold off on announcing that it's absolute reality.

Answer 8

Evolution is fact. It has been observed that a gene pool can change over time.

You are referring to the Theory of Evolution (molecules evolving into man and such). And since it could never be proven 100%, it is a theory. But at this point, with what we know. Almost all scientists regard it as truth. The small scale has been observed, the big picture is still being studies though.

Answer 9

--Evolution has evolved in to one of the greatest Jokes in history!

*** g90 1/22 p. 9 Fraud in Science-A Greater Fraud ***

Molecular biologist Michael Denton referred to this glib talk about evolution's being a fact and dismissed it with these words: "Now of course such claims are simply nonsense." It's much more than nonsense. It's fraud. It deceives and misrepresents. It perverts the truth to induce another to part with something of value. Newspapers, radio, TV, nature series, science programs, schoolbooks from second grade on-all drum this evolution-is-a-fact litany into the public mind. Recently, however, The New York Times reported that California's school board has issued guidelines for science textbooks that apparently de-emphasize teaching evolution as a fact.-November 10, 1989.

--PLEASE NOTE some short comments on the lack of feasabiltiy of our evolutionary religion!

*** g97 5/8 Is Evolution's Foundation Missing? ***
---Inside the cell, there is "a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity."-Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
[Blurb on page 11]
----"The mathematics assumes that real-world evolution is a gradual, random process; it does not (and cannot) demonstrate it."
[Blurb on page 12]
----"It is ironic that in the name of protecting science, trenchant scientific criticism of natural selection has been brushed aside."

--*** g97 5/8 p.11, 12 Is Evolution's Foundation Missing? ***

Evolution-"A GAME OF CHANCE"(my caps)

--The theory of evolution is certainly a gambler's dream. Why? Because according to the evolutionist, it wins even with astronomical odds against it.
----Robert Naeye writes: "Because evolution is primarily a game of chance, any seemingly minor past event could have gone slightly different, cutting off our evolutionary line before humans evolved."
Robert Naeye, a writer for Astronomy magazine and an evolutionist, wrote that life on earth is the result of "a long sequence of improbable events [that] transpired in just the right way to bring forth our existence, as if we had won a million-dollar lottery a million times in a row."

--I do not know if any one exists that won the million dollar lotery even 2 times in a row,---but A MILLION TIMES IN A ROW?

Answer 10

Evolution is still a theory, and according to my beliefs: a false one.

If you read Genesis 1:1 You will find that is says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Think about how evolution says the way things are made. Did they just plop together?
First of all, it is statistically impossible. Second of all, if it were possible then during the changes and "upgrades" the animals would die because of the lack of organs. And haven't you noticed that there hasn't exactly been much change lately? I mean think about it. Thousands of years ago people look practically the same as they do now. Of course, some things have changed as we have adapted to different environments, but no "evolving."