Definitions (Evolution)

by whitecraw, Saturday, April 05, 2008, 21:55 (5858 days ago) @ David Turell

'Each year life is shown to be more and more complex, and some supernatural force becomes more likely to explain the origin of life.' - Then it will be a moot point as to whether such an explanation can be considered 'scientific'. - It is a constitutive principle of modern science that nature is a closed system of cause and effect and that, for an explanation to be considered 'scientific', it must not invoke as a postulate any agency outside of that system; i.e. any supernatural agency. This is the principle of methodological naturalism, and is what did for the scientific status of the theory of evolution by intelligent design in the case of Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. - There are also other problems with considering creationism to be a scientific theory. It isn't falsifiable; i.e. it is incapable of being tested by experiment or observation. And it has no heuristic value; i.e. it doesn't generate any problems requiring further investigation and research. As theologians will tell you, there is no way of disproving that supernatural agency exists and had at least a hand in making things the way they are. And the explanation 'because God made it that way' is the final word on any matter. - For such reasons as these I'd still go with the theory of evolution by natural selection as a scientific explanation of how properties of populations of organisms change through time. However lousy it may turn out to be, it is still the best lousy theory we currently have. You maintain that the theory of evolution by natural selection has problems explaining the complexity of life. I don't agree for the reasons I've adumbrated several times now without reply. But even if it did have such problems, this provides us with no immediate reason to abandon the theory (and, moreover, to effect a revolution in the constitution of science to allow us to ascribe scientific status to currently non-scientific theories); it calls meantime only for further investigation and research towards solving those problems within the scope of the current theory.