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Author Topic:   Debate - Ongoing controversy, the EvC question
Loudmouth
Inactive Member


Message 37 of 40 (109044)
05-18-2004 1:50 PM
Reply to: Message 32 by Cold Foreign Object
05-17-2004 8:11 PM


Re: So Falsify
quote:
How about the arguments of EvC member Brian and others that Genesis is myth.
That is falsifying the claim that Genesis is the God-protected version of events.
That is a counter-argument, not a real falsification. A falisification would be concrete proof that the author's acutally intended Genesis as a mythical retelling of earth's creation.
We often say that special creation has been falsified, and then claim the stance is unfalsifiable. Both are right, but from differing viewpoints.
To the evolutionist, or science in general, special creation 6,000 years ago has been falsified by the theory of uniformitarianism. That is, it is assumed that mechanisms working today acted in the same exact fashion throughout time (as far as Earth is concerned). Through this lens, there is evidence that falsifies young earth creationism.
However, YEC's bring up the theory of a "mature earth". That is, God created the earth 6,000 years ago in such a way to make it look billions of years old. This would have to include planting fossils, organizing fossils, changing isotope ratios in rocks to reflect old age, and so forth. This position supports the YEC position, but can not be falsified and therefore explains nothing. Also, ad hoc hypotheses are also used. These are inherently non-falsifiable (such as Walt Brown's Hydroplate Theory). Instead of a water canopy, you could just as easily argue that millions of large UFO's partially blocked out the sun and then used teleportation to dump billions of gallons of water onto the earth.
I would say that the Genesis account has been falsified by observations in the natural world. It is only through unfalsifiable ad hoc hypotheses that YEC creationists are able to argue for their position. It is not a matter of interpretation of the data, but of ignoring the importance of falsification that makes creationism a pseudoscience.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 32 by Cold Foreign Object, posted 05-17-2004 8:11 PM Cold Foreign Object has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 38 by zephyr, posted 05-18-2004 3:24 PM Loudmouth has not replied
 Message 39 by Cold Foreign Object, posted 05-18-2004 6:42 PM Loudmouth has not replied

  
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