Nor is common descent scientific.
Actually, it is. By assuming common descent, one can predict that various phenomena should be observable. If these phenomena are not observed, then, in the language of science, we would have falsifications of common descent. If the predicted phenomena are observed, then these, in the language of science, would count as verifications. As it turns out, many of the predicted phenomena
are observed, just as predicted by the hypothesis of common descent.
So, common descent has been verified according to the standard hypothesis-prediction-observation-confirmation model of science. In fact, common descent is an excellent example of a confirmed scientific theory under the now classical model of what science is and how it works.
In fact, getting back to the OP, I would say that common descent now ranks as a
fact, and that the
theory of evolution is the theory (or theories) that explain how this happens.
I've done everything the Bible says, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff! -- Ned Flanders