Tyson, Thanks for the clarification. My contention all along is that both creation and evolution are theories of origins. They both require faith at some point to be believed.
You are correct, and incorrect. Truly, both are theories attempting to explain the diversity of life on our planet. But you are incorrect to bring faith in to a discussion of science. Science does not need or require faith.
A quick overview of theory, fact, and hypothesis seems to be in order. A fact is more or less observed data (simplifying here for the sake of clarity). A hypothesis is a "guess" at the meaning of said facts are. A theory is a hypothesis supported by facts.
A theory can always be revised or discarded if another theory comes along that has better explanatory power.
To discard the theory of evolution, a better theory would have to be proposed, and that theory would have to have better explanatory power. Currently there is no such other theory. If someone WERE to come up with such a theory, and it was able to hold up to scientific scrutiny, that person would pretty much be a shoe-in for a nobel prize.
So, really all science cares about is whether a given theory has the greatest explanatory power for all the known facts. Faith does not enter in to it anywhere.
You bring up the origin of life (primordial ooze, etc), that's another topic entirely
At the heart of evolutionary theory is this - mutations occur in species, and can be detrimental or helpful for their survival in a given environment. Those that are helpful find their way in to later generations of that species, which results in a slightly different version of the original species. Do this enough times and you end up with something very different than what you started with.
Are you saying that this does not happen? That it has never happened? That it does not have a lot of explanatory power for species variation?
As for why the "God theory" of life diversity does not get taken seriously is that one would first have to show that 1) there is in fact a god and 2) that he was the agent of change (or creation) for species. Once you do that, then the creationist theory will have some weight. Until then it will not (except to the "faithful", of course).
On a more general note, I am NOT trying to insult anyone's intelligence here, this is completely NOT about intelligence at all. My earlier posts were specifically addressing peoples (even very intellegent peoples) ability to be blinded to facts and theories due to some pre-existing belief systems in their mind (or heart, or whatever).
Since god cannot be proven to exist, let alone effect changes in the world, he is OUT as a scientific explanation for anything. Once god is removed, all you have left is the natural world, and everything in the natural world points to the fact that evolution occured, and continues to occur.
And by the way, gravity is NOT a fact, it is a theory. That's why you hear it refered to at the "Theory of Gravity", not the "Fact of Gravity".
But I'm glad you bring it up because it does have bearing on our discussion of the scientific method. The "fact" is we observe that things fall to the earth. Objects (and people) don't simply float around, the are more or less "stuck" to the earth. These are all facts. A scientist comes along and asks, "what can explain all these observed facts"? Well, he says, there must be some force that compels objects to fall down (be attracted to the earth). I'll call this theoretical force gravity. Hmm, lets see, does this theory of gravity explain any other observations we have? Well, yes, if we say that the bigger an object, the more gravity it has, it explains the rotation of the moon around the earth, and the earth around the sun. It also explains the tides in relation to the moon".
But you see, this is all just theory. And no theory is ever proven, ever. It can ALWAYS be replaced with a better theory with more explanatory power.
And as for being able to "test" evolution, if you see my explanation above about what the core of evolutionary theory is (descent with modification), then you can see it anyday and everyday - look at breeding, either animal or plant. Look at peoples skin color (darker for sunnier regions, lighter for darker regions). Bacterial mutating and building resistance to anti-biotics. Fewer humans being born with an appendix. And these are just some common examples.
