The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument - Religion - Nairaland
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| The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by tpaine: 8:32pm On Mar 09, 2008 |
As a scientific theory, evolution has withstood the test of every attempt to falsify it, but each time it passed with flying colours. The evidence in support of evolution is staggering, ranging from paleontology, geology, genetic etc. Each of these branches of science independently could be capable of falsifying evolution, but interestingly, only find facts that confirm common descent by natural selection. I have seen all kind of attempts at refuting evolutions - from the bizarre to the ridiculous. One of the most ridiculous trumpetted by some of the members of Nairaland (particularly Imhotep) is the No-Witness Argument. Basically, he asserts that we must accept evolution on faith because no one was around to witness it. Below is a typical comment from Imhotep; imhotep: This is wrong in so many counts, it is amazing that someone has reached adulthood (I presume) and hold such naive understanding of the world and science. This is palpable evidence that the science curriculum in most schools have failed to impart the most basics of scientific understanding. Science is routinely used to study the past and make predictions about the future; For instance, when we peer into a telescope to look at distance star, we may be looking at events that took place billions of years ago. The compositions of stars such as our sun is well understood although no-one has physically travelled to these stars. And many many such studies are carried out daily by scientist all over the world. If this was a discredited approach to science, then the majority of scientific research would grind to a halt. Now consider the following analogies; 1) A clearing in the woods You walk 10 miles into a dense forest and find a clearing in the woods where once there might have been a tree. But the tree is nowhere to be found by simple naked-eye inspection. There were no eye witnesses of witness the falling and rotting away (or carting off) of the tree. Say, you arrive at the scene 1 - 5 years after the clearing appeared. Is it possible to formulate a hypothesis to determine what happened at this location? 2) The site of a car crash. You are a forensic car accident investigator. You arrive at the scene of a hit-and-run accident, with the car having hit a road-traffic installations and there are no eye-witnesses. The culprit car has been driven away from the scene of the crash. Is it possible to formulate a hypothesis to explain the plausible set of explanations as to the damage to the road installation? 3) You drive your car to the petrol filling station to top up on fuel and your 10 year old child asks you, "Daddy, where does petroleum fuel come from?" Can you formulate a hypothesis to investigate the process of the formation of petroleum fuels? 4) You take you prospective wife to a jewery store to put an engagement ring on her finger. Your partner is not very knowledgeable about sciences but she adores diamond. You also adore her; so will not begrudge her ignorance of these esoteric matters of sciences. Upon arrival home, she is delighted with the diamond, but asks you how these stones are formed. Can you formulate a hypothesis to investigate the formation of diamonds naturally? Do you think these natural processes could be artificially mimicked in the labs today? Consider the above when next you are tempted to use the No-Witness Argument. BTW, evolution is happen all the time as I write. The Nylon-eating bacteria is a new bacteria that evolve only after nylon was invented in the 50s. There are many more examples. ===================================================================================================== Some of my other threads The Dangers Of Religious Fundamentalism To Intellectualism https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=110955.msg1929006#msg1929006 Danger! 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| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by Nobody: 12:55pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
tpaine:@tpaine Poor analogies. Give me an analogy using an event that might have happened 90 million years ago - not 1 or 5 years ago. |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by tpaine: 1:09pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
imhotep: OK, if that is what you want, here we go; 3) You drive your car to the petrol filling station to top up on fuel and your 10 year old child asks you, "Daddy, where does petroleum fuel come from?" Can you formulate a hypothesis to investigate the process of the formation of petroleum fuels? 4) You take you propective wife to a jewery store to put an engagement ring on her finger. Your partner is not very knowledgeable about sciences but she adores diamond. You also adore her; so will not begrudge her ignorance of these esoteric matters of sciences. Upon arrival home, she is delighted with the diamond, but asks you how these stones are formed. Can you formulate a hypothesis to investigate the formation of diamonds naturally? Do you think these natural processes could be artificially mimiced in the labs today? There you are! |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by 4Play(m): 1:15pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
Now consider the following analogies; You are free to formulate all the hypothesis your mind can fathom,the problem is where you elevate your hypothesis to empirical truths. |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by tpaine: 1:26pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
4 Play: I agree to a certain extent. There are all sorts of TRUTHS, some of which admit of empirical verification. The ones we are talking about here are certainly amenable to empirical validation. For instance, we can empirically verify that the water molecule (H2O) is composed of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. Just as we can empirically verify that there once were things called dinosaurs, neandarthal, saber-tooth tigers and mamoths. Science has the wherewithal to perform these verification. We are simply employing the same methodology to investigate the diversity of life on the planet. |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by 4Play(m): 1:40pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
@tpaine Don't be disingenuous.If the theory of evolution has been empirically validated a la the composition of H2O,you won't be hedging by talking of "formulating hypothesis." The whole debate is about the origin of life,unless you asserting that this has been empirically validated,you are effectively stuck with the formulation of hypothesis.Until then,many other theories about the origin of life retain credibility until one has been conclusively proven. |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by tpaine: 1:51pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
4 Play: is there an omission in this post. it does not make sense to me. you want to check it, then i shall respond. |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by tpaine: 2:37pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
4 Play: I think I get your point now, but you are wrong, with respect. "Every" scientific theory starts life as a hypothesis. The investigator gathers the facts and tries to explain such fact with a hypothesis. Only after the hypothesis has been successfully verified and validated and the investigator and the community of worldwide scientists is that accepted as a theory. I used "hypothesis" in my analogies not to reduce evolustion to a hypothesis, but to demonstrate how a scientist would go about investigating the questions. You would be surprise, evolution has been validated at very minute levels; the chromosomal and microbiological level. Check out the work of the evolutionary scientist Sean Carrol, http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/carroll_bio.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncgm9QOzQsA BTW, evolution does NOT explain the start of life. It only explains the diversification of life, once life had got started. You may want to take my elementary test to check out your comprehension of basic science. This is may be instructive. Here we go; 1-) What is the speed of light? How long does it take the light from the sun to reach the earth? 2-) What is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis in the scientific sense? 3-) Have you ever heard about the germ theory of disease, the theory of gravity? 4-) What are stromatolites? 5-) How old is the earth? 6-) What is the end-permian extinction and what proportion of life went extinct? 7-) How long ago were dinosaurs wiped out? 8-) Do you know what asteroid impact of the earth are? 9-) Can you give a rough estimate of the number of stars on our galaxy, the Milky Way? 10-) Do you know what chromosomes and DNA are. Can you name any "genetic disease"? 11-) On the whole, do you think science and technology provides solutions to human problems? 12-) Have you ever visted a museum? 13-) What are fossils? 14-) What is the geological column? 15-) What is the theory of plate tectonic? 16-) How is petroleum fuel formed and how long is the process? |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by tpaine: 3:04pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
| Re: The Theory Of Evolution Refuted? The No-witness Argument by tpaine: 6:45pm On Mar 10, 2008 |
Imhotep, What you looked at these other analogies? 3) You drive your car to the petrol filling station to top up on fuel and your 10 year old child asks you, "Daddy, where does petroleum fuel come from?" Can you formulate a hypothesis to investigate the process of the formation of petroleum fuels? 4) You take you propective wife to a jewery store to put an engagement ring on her finger. Your partner is not very knowledgeable about sciences but she adores diamond. You also adore her; so will not begrudge her ignorance of these esoteric matters of sciences. Upon arrival home, she is delighted with the diamond, but asks you how these stones are formed. Can you formulate a hypothesis to investigate the formation of diamonds naturally? Do you think these natural processes could be artificially mimiced in the labs today? |
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