Evolutionary theory cannot be falsified (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, June 01, 2017, 01:20 (2731 days ago) @ dhw

Last November the Royal Society took a look at Darwin's theory problems, and found no solution:

https://www.evolutionnews.org/2017/05/haunted-by-intelligent-design-an-organizer-report...

"The opening presentation at the Royal Society conference by one of those world-class biologists, Austrian evolutionary theorist Gerd Müller, underscored [ tne problems.]

"Müller opened the meeting by discussing several of the fundamental “explanatory deficits” of “the modern synthesis,” that is, textbook neo-Darwinian theory. According to Müller, the as yet unsolved problems include those of explaining:

"Phenotypic complexity (the origin of eyes, ears, body plans, i.e., the anatomical and structural features of living creatures);

"Phenotypic novelty, i.e., the origin of new forms throughout the history of life (for example, the mammalian radiation some 66 million years ago, in which the major orders of mammals, such as cetaceans, bats, carnivores, enter the fossil record, or even more dramatically, the Cambrian explosion, with most animal body plans appearing more or less without antecedents);

"Non-gradual forms or modes of transition, where you see abrupt discontinuities in the fossil record between different types.

"As Müller has explained in previously published work (with Stuart Newman), although “the neo-Darwinian paradigm still represents the central explanatory framework of evolution, as represented by recent textbooks” it “has no theory of the generative.” In other words, the neo-Darwinian mechanism of mutation and natural selection lacks the creative power to generate the novel anatomical traits and forms of life that have arisen during the history of life. Yet, as Müller noted, neo-Darwinian theory continues to be presented to the public via textbooks as the canonical understanding of how new living forms arose — reflecting precisely the tension between the perceived, and actual, status of the theory. (my bold)

Comment: If the Royal Society had no tentative answers and my bolded statement is noted, all that is left of the theory is common descent. Not much of a theory.