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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (101716)	1/24/2009 7:18:51 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 543184

Even Richard Dawkins, when pressed as to his thoughts on what the origin of life might be, i.e. the original cell itself, said perhaps it was brought to earth by a superior life-form in the universe somewhere. Not sure of your point here. That opinion has nothing to do with evolution. I think religious folk collectively view evolution as more than theory when looking at fossil records, more in the fact camp, I would guess. In the taxonomy of scientific knowledge, it's still a theory, the recognized factuality of supporting fossil records notwithstanding. EDIT: I happened upon this bit from Wiki that discusses two meanings for evolution, one theory and one fact. I had only ever seen evolution referenced in textbooks as "The Theory of Evolution." From Wiki: Evolution, fact and theory Evolution has been described as "fact and theory", "fact not theory" and, "only a theory, not a fact". This illustrates a terminological confusion that hampers discussion.[8][9] The meanings of the terms "evolution" and "fact" and "theory", are described below: [edit] Evolution Main articles: Evolution and Introduction to evolution Evolution is usually defined simply as changes in trait or gene frequency in a population of organisms from one generation to the next. However, "evolution" is often used to include the following additional claims: 1. Differences in trait composition between isolated populations over many generations may result in the origin of new species. 2. All living organisms alive today have descended from a common ancestor (or ancestral gene pool). According to Douglas Futuyma, 'biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportion of different alleles within a population (such as those determining blood types) to the successive alterations that led from the earliest proto-organism to snails, bees, giraffes, and dandelions.' [10] The term "evolution", especially when referred to as a "theory", is also used more broadly to incorporate processes such as natural selection and genetic drift.