Why Evolution is science

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In order for something to be scientifically true, it needs to be duplicated.

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This is false.In order for a theory to be scientifically confirmed, it must predict that some observable phenomemon that is subsequently observed. The theory of evolution has done exactly this. It is a very well confirmed theory.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

Here is an example of a prediction based on the theory of evolution (it is my favorite one):If all species evolved from a common ancestor, then it should be possible to categorize the species in a nested hierarchical classification scheme.This prediction has been confirmed; in fact, Linnaeus had already started his classification method long before Darwin produced his work. Subsequent new species have always had a place some place in this nested hierarchy.Now here is where repeatability comes in: anyone can go out, examine closely representative members of various species and come up with her own classification scheme. Yet every attempt to do so has always yielded the exact same nested hierarchies. This is exactly what the theory of evolution predicts.Now under any other theory of biological origins, like, say, special creation, there is no reason for the species to fit into one and only one hierarchical classification scheme. A special creator could have created any species she wanted with whatever mix of characteristics she wanted. Yet all the species known fit into one and only one nested hierarchical scheme.The theory of evolution predicts this. If common descent is true, then no other scheme is possible. And this is exactly what we see.Here is a web page that lists many other predictions made under the theory of evolution and how those predictions have been confirmed.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

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Doesn't the theory of evolution also involve something arrising from nothing?

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No. Here is a post I wrote explaining very briefly what the theory of evolution involves.-

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Wasn't this disproven by Pastuer?

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No. All Pasteur showed was that the phenomenon of putrification (rotting) results from contamination by microorganisms in the environment.Edited by Chiroptera, : Fixed link.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

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If entropy is increasing how can animals evolve into something more complex?

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Exactly the same way that an embryo can develop into a full grown adult animal. Guess what -- entropy is increasing in this instance, too.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

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I majored in mathematics.

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So did I. In fact, I teach college level mathematics.-

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I know all about probabilities.

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Cool. I'm teaching a course in probability this coming spring.-I also have experience in scientific modelling, so I know a little bit about the weaknesses of mathematical calculations and models. In fact, earlier today I just happened to write a little post discussing the proper place of models in scientific investigations.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

Okay, I will desist.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

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Evoloution as it appears today is a full-fledged scientific theory because of the inclusion of a mechanism.

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Is this description lacking anything?

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What is also needed to be a scientific theory is that the theory must successfully predict phenoma that is not predicted by one or more of the competitors (if there are any).For instance, evolution predicts the heirarchical classification of species (which was already known, of course, so this is more of a retrodiction -- however, there was no good reason known why this hierarchical structure should be observed prior to Darwin).Also, the mechanisms of heredity were unknown in Darwin's time. The theory of evolution predicts that whatever the mechanisms of heredity, the hereditary factors should be subject to change during or before transmission to the next generation. In other words, evolution predicts genetic mutations.-Another thing that is necessary is repeatability of the observations.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

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Isaiah 40:22
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,

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Actually, this is a problem for literalists. It describes the earth as a flat disk and the skies as a tent stretched over it. This is consistent with the cosmologies of the peoples of the Middle East at the time this was written. According the local beliefs, the earth is a flat surface, and the sky is a solid dome that holds the waters of the sky in place; read the literal account of Noah's flood to see how this fits together.Taken in the context of the local beliefs, the writer clearly believes that the earth is a flat disk, and the creator made the sky by stretching a physical material over it. Interpreting this verse according to modern beliefs that the earth is a sphere and space-time is expanding is simply reading your own present knowledge into ancient texts that very clearly had a different meaning.To that end,

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Isaiah 42:5
This is what God the LORD says” he who created the heavens and stretched them out...

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Is either metaphor, or more expression of the belief that the sky is a big, physical tent and the creator literally stretched this physical material when he made it all.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

Hello, Confidence, and welcome to EvC.

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...creationism predicts genetic mutations as well.

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I don't know that I agree with that. I don't think that creationism predicts anything at all about genetics; I don't think that creationism says that everything should be degenerating. Certainly, the creationists before Galileo believed, for example, that the stars and planets were made out of a perfect substance not subject to decay or degeneration. So the existence of some things that do not degenerate is perfectly compatible with creationism. I don't see why genes couldn't be one of them. It would be perfectly possible that genes were carried by a mechanism that did not ever change between generations. "Bad genes" are not necessary for illness; there are plenty of diseases that don't rely on genes.-

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But evolution predicts mutations that gain information.

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Actually, it doesn't. What evolution predicts is that some of these mutations will lead to individuals that are better able to survive and produce progeny.-

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For example, a human growing feathers instead of hairs. Now, if we had such examples, evolution would have a strong case....

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Actually, this is just the opposite. Feathers are rather complicated structures, and to see a human hand suddenly have feathers would contradict what we know about evolution.In fact, this is what I would expect to see if creationism is true. Remember I mentioned the nested hierarchical classification of species? If creationism were true, I wouldn't expect to see this; I would expect to see a random mix of characteristics that would defy the sort of Linnaean classification that we see.

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

Hi, Confidence. There are some errors in your post; they may seem minor, but they really affect how one looks at the broad picture.

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Good mutations are mutations that eventually lead to a new function.

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No. Good mutations are mutations that lead to individuals that have a better chance at surviving and leaving behind progeny. Period. Now it might be possible for a single mutation to produce a novel function, but in most cases this is not what happens. Would you be surprised to learn that the evolution of lungs from a widening of the throat, or the middle ear bones of mammals from the jaw joint of reptile-like ancestors did not involve acquiring any new functions?

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Kings were put to death long before 21 January 1793. But regicides of earlier times and their followers were interested in attacking the person, not the principle, of the king. They wanted another king, and that was all. It never occurred to them that the throne could remain empty forever. -- Albert Camus

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The real world is fuzzy. If you're not comfortable with a little fuzz then you have no business in the sciences. Best to stick with theology, or philosophy, or economics, or any other completely made-up human endeavors that require absolutely no evidential basis for their reasoning.

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Or mathematics. That's what I did. Good post, by the way.

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But government...is not simply the way we express ourselves collectively but also often the only way we preserve our freedom from private power and its incursions. -- Bill Moyers (quoting John Schwarz)

Hello, Oliver. Welcome to EvC.

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Science demands that that which is studied be testable, demonstrable and observable of which Evolution doesn't qualify.

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Actually, the theory of evolution is testable, demonstrable, and observable according to the meanings those words have in science. Dr. Douglas Theobald has written a wonderful essay describing how evolution is not only testable, but it has passed the tests that have been put to it.Just so I am "arguing by internet link", let me briefly point out my favorite evidence for evolution: the nested hierarchical classification of the species.The test: If common descent were true, that is, if all known species are descended from a very small number of ancestral species, we should be able arrange the species in a hierarchical pattern based on their physical characteristics. If this nested hierarchical classification were not true, then this would be a falsification of the theory of common descent.The observation: Such a nested hierarchical pattern is observed; furthermore, it is not spurious: different people using different characteristics in their classification produce essentially the same nested hierarchies.This, along with other such tests, constitutes the demonstration of the theory of evolution.

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This world can take my money and time/ But it sure can't take my soul. -- Joe Ely

Hello again, Oliver.Actually, in your original post you claim: The point that people are trying to make (including me) is that this is incorrect. According the widely recognized standards of what is and is not science, the theory of evolution does count as science.Just to try to keep things from veering off before we adequately address the original points.

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This world can take my money and time/ But it sure can't take my soul. -- Joe Ely

Again, the topic is not whether the theory of evolution is correct, or whether or not there are competing theories of the history of life. The topic is whether the theory of evolution is science.

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This world can take my money and time/ But it sure can't take my soul. -- Joe Ely

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...it's just that so many claim Evolution to be scientific fact and I think that the majority of evolutionists would disagree with your post.

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I'm not sure what you think that the majority of evolutionists would disagree with. The theory of evolution is testable according to the meaning of "testable" that science uses. The theory of evolution is observable according to the meaning of "observable" that science uses.Furthermore, even though this is not quite on topic, let me add that evolution is a "scientific fact", at least as much as anything can be called a "scientific fact". Multiple lines of evidence, in many different fields of science, using very different methods of investigation, all give a remarkably consistent picture of the history of life on earth. The evidence is plentiful and unambiguous enough that it is difficult to imagine that life did not evolve from a common ancestor.

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This world can take my money and time/ But it sure can't take my soul. -- Joe Ely