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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Null Dog Ago who wrote (325)	9/14/1999 7:12:00 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 69300

admit you are wrong Yes, I have been hard on you, but for a good reason. This whole issue has been clouded, intentionally, by manipulators. They take words out of context and normal scientific use and try to associate them with the venacular, which they further cloud up. Chief amongst these are the scientific terms of FACT, THEORY, and PROOF. When I say evolution is a fact I am talking about those funny little stones in the ground. They are there, I saw them again as I drove home through a deep cut in the hillside filled with seashell shaped rocks. You're not going to budge me on this, those stones are there, I've seen them, I've touched them, I've even tasted them. Evolution - the idea that life of Earth has changed - is a FACT!. You may wish to dispute the scope of the change, but life has changed. Theory - I'm trying to break you of the habit of calling this a theory because it isn't and it only leads you to further misunderstanding & manipulation. A theory is a proposed idea to explain a fact. A theory has to fit the evidence and new evidence comes along all the time. A good theory will also make predictions. By this I mean that it will immediately be able to be tested against new evidence that hasn't even been found yet. Finally PROOF! This is the word most often manipulated. Some rogues try to equate proof with some kind of ultimate truth. Proof is a test. There are popular sayings, often misunderstood, which were taken out of the scientific context. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating.". Does that mean something is not pudding if nobody eats it? Of course not! It just means that the correct or most accepted test for a pudding comes from eating. You can tell it's a pudding by the recipe. Another is "The exception proves the rule". Does this mean that any time you find an exception you show the rule to be some truth? Of course not! It means that when you find an example that does not conform to the standard you have a very good and hard test. A theory must explain not only the normal case but those odd cases that pop up from time to time. You might say, "But that's not what I meant". I say if your are going to play on the scientific playground you have to follow the correct rules and definitions (and creation theory is definitely an attempt to play with the big boys). TP