The world is full of naysayers, non thinkers, and logic twisters—the world is flat, the moon landing was staged, the Holocaust never happened. Fortunately, these nutty ideas have not as yet found their way into our public school curricula.
Creationists, on the other hand, want their story taught as science. They argue that evolution is ONLY a theory. They use the word only to make the theory sound like it's a whimsical idea without a factual base.
I believe evolution is the most documented and verified scientific body of knowledge we have. Like gravity, evolution is a law of science. Evolution hardly argues we came from apes, although the apes might feel insulted by that assertion. It argues that organisms become better adapted to their local environment, over time—nothing else. It can be said, then, that humans have changed over thousands of years. Paint your own picture.
For the benefit of creationists, let's look at what a theory really is all about.
| A THEORY is a verifiable explanation accounting for known facts or phenomena: the theory of relativity is one example. Relativity was put forth by Einstein, and others, using mathematics applied to observable phenomena. Relativity explains the macro universe. |
There is no only before the theory of relativity. It is an accepted fact based on hard evidence.
By contrast, a hypothesis is a guess put forth as a possible explanation for a hunch or experience. The explanation may or may not be true. Hypotheses are often tested and confirmed or rejected as factual theory. For example one may claim that extra terrestrial life exists; this claim is only a hypothesis. Until we can bop around the cosmos and find other planets like ours with a verifiable life form, the idea of extra terrestrial life will remain a hypothesis.
A theory, then, accounts for known facts that can be verified and measurable. A tool of evolutionary science is carbon dating. To simplify the idea of carbon dating, know that carbon dating is applicable only to matter which was once living. It disappears from organic matter in a measurable rate. Ancient bones and plant seeds, for example, found in layers of earth have carbon in them. The carbon-14 (a form of carbon) is radioactive and combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and is incorporated into the cycle of living things. So by measuring the rate of carbon-14 emissions, and the amount of carbon-14 remaining, science can calculate the age of the material. From the examination of bones and other organic material science has determined the world is far older that 6,000 years the creationists claim.
To deny evolution creationists must discount hard evidence in favor of fanciful writings written 2000 years ago by clerics who had no understanding of the world of science (we know what they did to Galileo). Creationists lack facts to support their hypothesis other than to rely on these ancient stories to explain their beliefs. These stories gain traction, I believe, because they are sold to their believers as the word of God or God-like authors. Creationism is no more a competing theory to evolution than an Ouija board is to future casting. We can accept creationism as religion, but it is not science. Religion has its place but not in science classes.
"Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History," by Stephan Jay Gould.
