Definitions (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, April 03, 2008, 09:43 (6076 days ago) @ dhw

George Jelliss used my complaint about Dawkins' distortion of scientific terms as a reason for compiling a glossary. I objected at the time, as this resulted in digressions from the point at issue, but now that George has responded to my original posting (under Quotation from Darwin), I must admit that a glossary is a useful way of clarifying ideas. Whitecraw followed up with his own list of definitions, and I would like to do the same, while adding a few subjective comments which may or may not prove productive. - abiogenesis: the theory that non-living material can by chance assemble itself into living material capable of self-replication, heredity, variation and adaptation. Formerly known as "spontaneous generation". A cornerstone of atheism. - theism: belief in the existence of a god or gods. - atheism: disbelief in the existence of a god or gods. - agnosticism: 1) belief that it is impossible to know whether a god or gods exist(s) or not. 2) inability to believe or disbelieve in the existence of a god or gods. - god: a superior being believed to have created life on Earth and/or to embody different aspects of life on earth. - God: the god of monotheistic religions, believed to have created life on earth and still to be actively interested in human affairs. - deism: the belief that God created life on earth and then left it to its own devices. - Evolution: a theory that all life on earth developed out of original, simple forms through 
 a) beneficial random mutations: hereditary genetic changes able by 
 chance to produce complex new organs, mechanisms, systems which confer 
 advantages on the organisms that undergo them;
 b) natural selection: a process whereby organisms that are able to 
 adapt to their respective environments with the aid of beneficial random 
 mutations survive as successful species. - chance: relating to any event that has no apparent cause, purpose or design. - Darwinism/Darwinian/Darwinist: originally used to indicate the theory of evolution, but currently often misused to indicate scientific support for atheism. - Science: the objective study of the physical world. - science: the objective study of any subject. - faith: belief and/or trust in something for which there is no objective confirmation ... e.g. God, the principles of politicians, abiogenesis.