Evolution is Not Just a Theory :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

maturation is Not Just a Theory Evolution is a detail in that scientists know beyond reasonable doubt that it happened. The exact chemical mechanism of phylogeny -- that is, exactly how it happened -- is lock up a theory. Evolution is both a position and a theory. Mainstream scientists consider it a fact that evolution occurred how it occurred is still considered a theory. Stephen J. Gould describes this difference best In the American vernacular, theory often fashion imperfect fact -- part of a hierarchy of confidence running downhill from fact to theory to hypothesis to guess. Thus the power of the creationist argument evolution is still a theory and intense debate now rages about many aspects of the theory. If evolution is worse than a fact, and scientists cant even make up their minds about the theory, whence what confidence can we have in it? Indeed, President Reagan echoed this argument in the lead an evangelical group in Dallas when he said (in what I piously ho pe was campaign rhetoric) Well, it is a theory. It is a scientific theory only, and it has in recent years been challenged in the world of science -- that is, not believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it erst was. Well evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories ar opposite things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the worlds data. Theories are structures of ideas that develop and interpret facts. Facts dont go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einsteins theory of gravitation replaced Newtons in this century, notwithstanding apples didnt suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwins proposed mechanism or by somewhat other yet to be discovered. Moreover, fact doesnt mean absolute certainty there aint no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and maths flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are NOT about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for continual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us wrong for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science fact can only mean confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to maintain provisional consent. I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.