Reasonable said:
But let me try and help. Imagine an archery target. The centre rings are the theories were now know are facts. They're not going to change. The evidence is in, it all adds up and the theories relating to it will never change. Now, the middle set of rings is where we're almost sure but not quite. Let's say we know the theory is basically right but it may be tweaked a bit to get to 100%. This is where Evolution sits. We know it's right. The evidence really is huge. But, we don't understand every aspect of evolution. For example we know how it works but maybe not exactly all the factors involved. So that theory will continue to be tweaked until the middle rings are locked down as fact. But evolution as a principle isn't going to change. I assure you it won't because all the core theories are rock solid. Now, the outer rings, well, that's where we're not sure yet. But scientific theory isn't guessing. Over time the evidence will allow us to be certain. That ring will become like the former middle rings, and eventually will be locked in. This area is the frontier of our current knowledge. Again, you need to stop seeing scientific theories as some constantly changing mass of plastecine. That's just wrong. Many, many theories will never change because we know they are exact. But we don't know everything, and that's where the changes take place. OFF TOPIC: I have to say, reading some other replies in this thread, I understand why people like Richard Dawkins get so exasperated with people's lack of understanding. |
That's a pretty interesting way of explaining it. I kind of wish I knew more about the topic so I could make a more educated response. Right now I'm in university and one of my classes is anthropology so we've been going over lots of evolutionary theory and that sort of thing. So by the end of the year I'll certainly have better answers.
For now all I can say is the reason I'm not convinced that evolution (as the origin of all species) is true is because of all the gaps and missing links in the evolutionary tree. Plus its hard to believe that all of the thousands...no millions of species of animals we have today evolved from the first life forms on Earth.
But I do believe that some evolution has occured since the time God created us (which is my belief). Natural selection makes perfect sense to me as only the strongest animals survive and therefore only the desirable traits get passed down to their offspring. Also there is good evidence of mutations occuring which mess with DNA and genes.
So really I'm on board with parts of science, but I don't think I'll ever change my belief that God created the world and everything in it unless there's some major breakthrough in science that is 100% fact/evidence based and not just theories.
