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Reader's letter: Theory of evolution stands up
As Mr. Varona states in his letter, evolution, like creationism, is a theory. But the “theory” of creationism is not on equal footing with evolution, just as the stork theory of where babies come from is not on equal footing with the other “theories” taught in a sex education class. Evolution as a theory has withstood EVERY debate against it. The journals of science and medicine are full of peer reviewed articles about it and we see none about creationism. Empirically, we see evolution happen with microorganisms over very short time spans.
That said, the theory that humans evolved from a common ancestor to apes is not on equal footing with evolution as a whole, but that is only because the fossil record is spotty, as it should be. It is estimated that less than one in a million organisms becomes a fossil, and it is even less likely that such fossils will be exposed to human discovery.
But trying to dismiss evolution based on this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The idea that all living things evolved from simple single-celled organisms to the complexity we see today is the current reigning theory in the sciences. Every observation we see supports it. But science requires more than that - a good scientific theory must be falsifiable. This theory could easily be dethroned by finding a single observation that doesn't support it, for example, finding a rabbit fossil in the Precambrian. The fossil record is complete enough to expect to see such a thing if it existed, but so far nothing of the sort has been found.
Does creationism make predictions that can potentially falsify it? If you take the Bible to the literal truth, it has falsified itself countless times.
Paul Parker
Professor, CMC
That said, the theory that humans evolved from a common ancestor to apes is not on equal footing with evolution as a whole, but that is only because the fossil record is spotty, as it should be. It is estimated that less than one in a million organisms becomes a fossil, and it is even less likely that such fossils will be exposed to human discovery.
But trying to dismiss evolution based on this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The idea that all living things evolved from simple single-celled organisms to the complexity we see today is the current reigning theory in the sciences. Every observation we see supports it. But science requires more than that - a good scientific theory must be falsifiable. This theory could easily be dethroned by finding a single observation that doesn't support it, for example, finding a rabbit fossil in the Precambrian. The fossil record is complete enough to expect to see such a thing if it existed, but so far nothing of the sort has been found.
Does creationism make predictions that can potentially falsify it? If you take the Bible to the literal truth, it has falsified itself countless times.
Paul Parker
Professor, CMC
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