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Author Topic:   The Definition for the Theory of Evolution
Doddy
Member (Idle past 5931 days)
Posts: 563
From: Brisbane, Australia
Joined: 01-04-2007


Message 23 of 216 (409244)
07-08-2007 7:32 AM
Reply to: Message 4 by subbie
07-07-2007 3:42 PM


Re: Your opinion, Your Favorite
subbie writes:
As stated, it could encompass either Darwinian or Lamarkian change.
Yes, that's why you often read "the theory of evolution by natural selection". Both of those gents had a theory of evolution, but only one had much explanatory power when presented with the evidence.

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Doddy
Member (Idle past 5931 days)
Posts: 563
From: Brisbane, Australia
Joined: 01-04-2007


Message 164 of 216 (416626)
08-17-2007 1:51 AM
Reply to: Message 163 by Ihategod
08-17-2007 1:39 AM


Re: definition of evolution
Vashgun writes:
I don't know what "biologically useful" means, and why it isn't useful to identify birds as things in the sky, and fish as things in the sea, and animals as things on the land and humans as the fallen masters of this world.
Because birds aren't always in the sky (emus, kiwis etc), animals aren't always on land (fish, for example, are animals) and how does anyone determine that humans are 'fallen masters'?
Vashgun writes:
Quantifying it anymore seems a waste of time. I am ready to change my opinion if you can supply me with a reason to believe the Linnean model is "biologically useful."
Well, with the above examples, we determine what things are by characteristics that only they have. Humans can go under water, but we don't become fish when we do. So, identifying things by habitat isn't wise, as you don't know whether that species is 'just visiting'.
So, you define birds as vertebrates with feathers, animals as mobile multicellular organisms and so on. You don't identify a human by whether they are a 'fallen master'. Instead, the way you determine that something is a human is if it looks and acts like what you call a human - a thinly-furred, bipedal and intelligent ape (it's more complicated than that, actually, at least for a specific genus, like 'human').

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Doddy
Member (Idle past 5931 days)
Posts: 563
From: Brisbane, Australia
Joined: 01-04-2007


Message 178 of 216 (416867)
08-18-2007 7:50 AM
Reply to: Message 175 by Refpunk
08-17-2007 3:30 PM


Re: topic please
Refpunk writes:
If there were evidence, then it would no longer be a theory, but a fact.
As the others have said, this isn't the case.
This particular claim is one Answers in Genesis's list of Arguments we think creationists should NOT use
quote:
“Evolution is just a theory.”
What people usually mean when they say this is “Evolution is not proven fact, so it should not be promoted dogmatically.” Therefore people should say that! The problem with using the word “theory” in this case is that scientists use it to mean a well-substantiated explanation of data. This includes well-known theories such as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Newton’s Theory of Gravity, as well as lesser-known ones such as the Debye-Hckel Theory of electrolyte solutions. It would be better to say that particles-to-people evolution is an unsubstantiated hypothesis or conjecture.

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