Evolution is not a scientific theory

[Fed up]

Which theory of evolution are you blathering on about now? I was careful to say which theory, Darwin or modern, I was discussing.

I think you are out of your depth and should withdraw gracefully.

[freediver]

The modern one.

[Aussie]

The modern one.

Define it.

[Fed up]

Then you are wrong.

Next question?

[freediver]

These are some of the aspects of the theory of evolution that are not scientific: beneficial mutation, universal common ancestry, presence/absence of chimerism, evolutionary tree, causes of events seen in paleontological evidence etc. The theory of natural selection is scientific.

[Fed up]

That is just total garbage!

I suggest going back to your HS books and working up from there.

[Jovial Munted]

That is just total garbage!

Genius argument

[annielaurie]

These are some of the aspects of the theory of evolution that are not scientific: beneficial mutation, universal common ancestry, presence/absence of chimerism, evolutionary tree, causes of events seen in paleontological evidence etc. The theory of natural selection is scientific.

Yes FD, the theory of natural selection is scientific. What we call evolution is simply natural selection occurring across species of plant and animal life on earth, over very long periods of time, in the billions of years; as one species of plant or animal gradually changes into another because of adaptation to the environment.

People tend to forget the aspect of time, long periods of time: epochs, in the billions of years.

They tend to picture an ape suddenly changing into a human, and that seems preposterous and could not possibly happen.

They ask, if we came from apes then why are there still apes living alongside us today. They are our cousins on the evolutionary tree, we branched out millions of years ago from a common ancestor, which in turn branched out from an even earlier form which lived millions of years before that.

Mankind cannot "see" this happening because our lifespans are too short. But with the hypothesis of evolution as the foundation, we can see how natural selection works over long periods of time.

[annielaurie]

Here, this is from Wikipedia,

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the inherited characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.[1]

Life on Earth originated and then evolved from a universal common ancestor approximately 3.7 billion years ago. Repeated speciation and the divergence of life can be inferred from shared sets of biochemical and morphological traits, or by shared DNA sequences. These homologous traits and sequences are more similar among species that share a more recent common ancestor, and can be used to reconstruct evolutionary histories, using both existing species and the fossil record. Existing patterns of biodiversity have been shaped both by speciation and by extinction.[2]

Charles Darwin was the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Evolution by natural selection is a process that is inferred from three facts about populations: 1) more offspring are produced than can possibly survive, 2) traits vary among individuals, leading to differential rates of survival and reproduction, and 3) trait differences are heritable.[3] Thus, when members of a population die they are replaced by the progeny of parents that were better adapted to survive and reproduce in the environment in which natural selection took place. This process creates and preserves traits that are seemingly fitted for the functional roles they perform.[4] Natural selection is the only known cause of adaptation, but not the only known cause of evolution. Other, nonadaptive causes of evolution include mutation and genetic drift.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am bumping this post up from a couple of pages previous ..

[mantra]

The word scientific covers everything by the looks of it. It's definitely over-rated.

1. a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws: the mathematical sciences.

2.systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.

3.any of the branches of natural or physical science.

4.systematized knowledge in general.

5.knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study

Every conclusion an individual comes to after an observation can be called a scientific theory. Eg. My dog only eats kangaroo meat because anything else upsets his tummy. That is a scientific theory - but it can also be called a scientific law because it is a fact - that is unless someone discovers another food that his stomach will tolerate.