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Friday, Nov 12, 2004
Oh, childrens. Let tell you 'bout the continental drift and the liquid hot magma.
How does one answer something like this? (Seen on DKos.)
Science deals with the prediciton of the FUTURE with a test case that can also be DISAPROVED by a neutral party.
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To someone familiar with the basic premise of all science, evolution is just as foolish as creation.
Science comes in many forms. Much of it is based on the notion of forming a simple, elegant predictive theory. The basic Newtonian laws of motion can be played out to 3 digits of accuracy on a pool table within a few seconds. Sub-atomic interactions are much faster, but the same extreme predictability applies to the collisions.,,, snip ...
To someone familiar with the basic premise of all science, evolution is just as foolish as creation.
By comparision, plate tectonics requires much more time to make an observation, and the whole thing is a bit fuzzy due to complexity of the questions.
We don't "know" that the Indian subcontinent crashed into Asia to create Himalaya. I couldn't prove this fact beyond a reasonable doubt. But it sure looks that way. Scientists and engineers can use physics, mathematics, and powerful software to model and simulate the mantle and the crust, and get to know what the earth looked like billions of years ago.
That's science. Although it can't tell you if you're going to have a 3.1 microquake in your vicinity today.
And it's valuable science. Before we destroy this precious jewel called the earth, we had better learn how it all hangs together.
Biology is far more complicated than physics. It's harder to find the simple, elegant formulations ... F=ma V=IR PV=kRT Nope, kiss the idea of simplicity goodbye. String theory ain't got nothin on DNA.
But the life scientists try to find the threads, the themes that tie it all together. And evolution is one of those themes.
Why do we have complex cells? Why do we have mitochondrial DNA? Evolution. Symbiotic relationships of simpler biological forms were transformed into new, stable, more complex bioligical forms. This concept lies at the very foundation of the contemporary understanding of the origin of multicellular organisms.
One can't fully understand certain subjects unless you study billions of years of past evidence to tease out the underlying order, principles, laws. And the fact that I can't evolve a monkey into an ape as a party stunt doesn't mean that evolution isn't science.
But why is evolution an important science? Understanding the origins of biological structures helps us understand those stuctures. Knowing that we share a brain structure called the amygdala with reptiles helps us understand what an amygdala is and does, and why it's important not to allow that part of your brain to make very many decisions.
So, evolution (and plate tectonics) are complicated, imprecise, and don't allow easy experiments. But they are science, and they are important. But are they ungodly?
Knowing that we're all just a collection of uppity bacteria that spent 3.5 billon years learning how to type in no way diminishes the sense of wonder I have about the alleged creator.
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