Teaching Evolution Right Approach for Schools
Posted on: Monday, 25 April 2005, 18:00 CDT
The vocabulary of science:
Facts: the results of reproducible experiments.
Facts are true in the sense that they are reproducible under the given conditions with the given instrumentation.
Laws: generalizations of sets of related facts.
Laws are not true in an absolute sense. Enhanced experimental techniques may revise the facts and the laws are revised to be consistent with the facts. Facts and laws are correlative, not causative. They describe what happens, not why something happens.
Theories: statements that describe possible structures and interactions of systems such that, were a system as described, the behavior of the system would emerge as a consequence of the structure and interactions.
A theory does not state "Because the system is ..., we observe the facts....."; rather it states "If the system were ..., then we would observe the facts ...."
Theories are causative in that they state that the facts would be a result of the proposed structure. Theories are neither true nor false: They are useful or not useful.
Any theory explains existent facts: after all, the theory is based on the facts. A theory is useful if it explains facts that did not enter into its construction and if its deduction-based predictions are verified by experiment.
Sometimes the theoretical nature of a system may be experimentally observed and the theory itself becomes a fact, such as the Atomic Theory.
Newton did not suggest a theory of gravitation: He proposed a law of gravity. His genius was the recognition of the law based upon few and obscure facts.
Einstein does have a theory of gravity, part of the General Theory of Relativity. Many predictions based upon Einstein's theory are only now being experimentally verified.
Within biology, evolution meets the criteria of a fruitful theory. Intelligent design is not a scientific theory because, although it can be invoked to explain everything, it predicts nothing.
Therefore: Teach evolution in schools; intelligent design in churches.
Tim Mogill
Towanda
Source: Pantagraph
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