justinian said:
1) Unfortunately I cannot. It was from Zoological Scripta: Fact, Theory, Test and Evolution. I am sure you can find it somewhere online . I didn't make it up. Kirk. J Fitxhurgh is curator of the LA Natural History museum and researches evolution theories, etc. 2) I disagree, I think you get to choose what you believe. If a person chooses to believe in the reality of God, aliens or ghost it is entirely up to them whether they have "found evidence" of such things or not. 3) Do we see signs of evolution everyday? National Academy of Sciences: “The creation of a new species from a pre-existing species generally requires thousands of years, so over a lifetime a single human usually can witness only a tiny part of the speciation process. Yet even that glimpse of evolution at work powerfully confirms our ideas about the history and mechanisms of evolution. For example, many closely related species have been identified that split from a common ancestor very recently in evolutionary terms. Justinian note: I assume that the above is what you are refering (apologises if I misunderstood). Critics, however, point out that the issue is not whether mutation and natural selection can produce minor changes; it’s whether these mechanisms can create new tissues, organs, limbs or body plans. Biologist Keith Stewart Thomson, of Oxford University, points out that “no one has satisfactorily demonstrated a mechanism at the population genetic level by which innumerable very small … changes could accumulate rapidly to produce large changes: a process for the origin of the magnificently improbable from the ineffably trivial” (emphasis in original). Again, do not gt me wrong. I am NOT RUBBISHING EVOLUTION. I am simply with those scientists that need more evidence. @pezus. I don't recall saying that the scientists were 50/50 in their interpretation of evolution. The history of science itself shows the majority is not always right, as during the 70s about the lack of geological activity on planets or moons in our solar system. |
to your points...
1- Sorry, not acceptable. If you're quoting someone, unless you're making it up in your head, you must have read such quote somewhere. And since you just posted it right here it must mean you extracted it from somewhere. Unless you keep a diary on your pc with random quotes to use in arguments, the 'i'm sure you can find it on the internet' is not a valid response. I'm not saying you're lying, but surely you extracted it from somewhere and I'd love to see it's from either a book the man wrote or some reliable news source (not a creationist website).
2- The word choice implies that you have no information whatsoever on a certain claim which would make it a virtual coin toss wether you believe something or not. In the real world there are no such coin tosses so you can't actually chose what you believe. You see (i hope) tons of facts confirming one claim or the other and either you get convinced of something or you don't. Chosing your own beliefs seems like you're actually shutting yourself down to what reality is. Imagine someone 'chosing' to believe pigs can fly when there's no evidence to even 1 case of this happening.
3- Again, please provide me the link for this quote, it seems absolutely taken out of context and/or totally made up. I assure you there's no debate in the scientific community wether evolution does or does not happen. And this is not a discussion, this is a fact.
1 last thing, please check raygun's post above. It's basically repeating my first point in this discussion.
Please don't take this as a win/lose discussion. It's just to get you better informed. This way you won't have to 'chose' your beliefs. They will be a consequence of the information you'll possess.
