Fact and Theory

This is for my theistic friend:

"Evolution as a process that has always gone on in the history of the earth can be doubted only by those who are ignorant of the evidence or are resistant to evidence, owing to emotional blocks or to plain bigotry. By contrast, the mechanisms that bring evolution about certainly need study and clarification. There are no alternatives to evolution as history that can withstand critical examination. Yet we are constantly learning new and important facts about evolutionary mechanisms."- Theodosius Dobzhansky

"Well evolution is a theory. It is also a FACT. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.

Moreover, "fact" doesn't mean "absolute certainty"; there ain't no such animal in an exciting and complex world. The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do..."

Stephen J. Gould


"It is time for students of the evolutionary process, especially those who have been misquoted and used by the creationists, to state clearly that evolution is a FACT, not theory, and that what is at issue within biology are questions of details of the process and the relative importance of different mechanisms of evolution. It is a FACT that the earth with liquid water, is more than 3.6 billion years old. It is a FACT that cellular life has been around for at least half of that period and that organized multicellular life is at least 800 million years old. It is a FACT that major life forms now on earth were not at all represented in the past. There were no birds or mammals 250 million years ago. It is a FACT that major life forms of the past are no longer living. There used to be dinosaurs and Pithecanthropus, and there are none now. It is a FACT that all living forms come from previous living forms. Therefore, all present forms of life arose from ancestral forms that were different. Birds arose from nonbirds and humans from nonhumans. No person who pretends to any understanding of the natural world can deny these facts any more than she or he can deny that the earth is round, rotates on its axis, and revolves around the sun. "

R. C. Lewontin


"Today, nearly all biologists acknowledge that evolution is a fact. The term theory is no longer appropriate except when referring to the various models that attempt to explain how life evolves... it is important to understand that the current questions about how life evolves in no way implies any disagreement over the fact of evolution. "

- Neil A. Campbell, Biology 2nd ed., 1990, Benjamin/Cummings, p. 434


"Since Darwin's time, massive additional evidence has accumulated supporting the fact of evolution--that all living organisms present on earth today have arisen from earlier forms in the course of earth's long history. Indeed, all of modern biology is an affirmation of this relatedness of the many species of living things and of their gradual divergence from one another over the course of time. Since the publication of The Origin of Species, the important question, scientifically speaking, about evolution has not been whether it has taken place. That is no longer an issue among the vast majority of modern biologists. Today, the central and still fascinating questions for biologists concern the mechanisms by which evolution occurs."

- Helena Curtis and N. Sue Barnes, Biology 5th ed. 1989, Worth Publishers, p. 972


"A few words need to be said about the "theory of evolution," which most people take to mean the proposition that organisms have evolved from common ancestors. In everyday speech, "theory" often means a hypothesis or even a mere speculation. But in science, "theory" means "a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed." as the Oxford English Dictionary defines it. The theory of evolution is a body of interconnected statements about natural selection and the other processes that are thought to cause evolution, just as the atomic theory of chemistry and the Newtonian theory of mechanics are bodies of statements that describe causes of chemical and physical phenomena. In contrast, the statement that organisms have descended with modifications from common ancestors--the historical reality of evolution--is not a theory. It is a fact, as fully as the fact of the earth's revolution about the sun. Like the heliocentric solar system, evolution began as a hypothesis, and achieved "facthood" as the evidence in its favor became so strong that no knowledgeable and unbiased person could deny its reality. No biologist today would think of submitting a paper entitled "New evidence for evolution;" it simply has not been an issue for a century."

- Douglas J. Futuyma, Evolutionary Biology, 2nd ed., 1986, Sinauer Associates, p. 15

Misquoting Jesus

Theists are always misquoting Darwin and Einstein so I thought I'd also get creative with some of what Jesus said:

"Now, therefore, lift up your face, that you may receive the things that I shall teach you today. I am the one who ... will destroy you. You shall love your... camel... as your... Mother."

They said to Him: "Shall we then, being children... be the first to throw a stone?" Jesus said to them: "When you make... the outer as the inner... then you shall enter... the female... and have it abundantly."

Jesus said: "Blessed are the... fish... within you. Now, therefore, lift up... my shepherd... bring forth what is within Him. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these...

"...why are you afraid? Even the least among you can... doubt... I am the Father."

They said to Him: "Look, the Kingdom is... not... in the sky," Jesus said to them: "...whatever... split."

False Logic

Here's a list of common fallacies.

I think nearly all, if not all, Tim Keller's arguments fall into one of these catagories. Particularly this one: "Ignoratio elenchi" or an "Irrelevant conclusion".

"The fallacy of Irrelevant Conclusion consists of claiming that an argument supports a particular conclusion when it is actually logically nothing to do with that conclusion.

For example, a Christian may begin by saying that he will argue that the teachings of Christianity are undoubtedly true. If he then argues at length that Christianity is of great help to many people, no matter how well he argues he will not have shown that Christian teachings are true.

Sadly, these kinds of irrelevant arguments are often successful, because they make people to view the supposed conclusion in a more favorable light."

First he says what we believe depends on our culture and the people we hang around with. He's right. But this has nothing to do with his argument for the reasons for a god. In fact, it is the opposite. Ignoratio elenchi.

He then goes onto state that if you can't prove there is no god then there is one. This is a "Bifurcation".

"Also referred to as the "black and white" fallacy and "false dichotomy," bifurcation occurs if someone presents a situation as having only two alternatives, where in fact other alternatives exist or can exist."

He then goes on to list all the failed attmepts at disproving god. Again, this is an Irrelevant Conclusion and a false dichotomy, as failure to disprove god is not evidence for a god.

And it goes on...

A useful list if you're into debating.

Can Evil Be Good?

Imagine you exist in two realities.

In the first reality, you are walking alone to a party one night when you are attacked by a mugger and lose your wallet. You call the police and, upset, return home to recover, with no more than a few bruises.

In the second reality, just at the point the mugger is about to attack you, he's overwhelmed with guilt and changes his mind. Oblivious, you continue on to the party. You have too much to drink and when some stranger offers you a lift home you accept. He turns out to be a psycho and murders you...

In the first reality, the mugger has saved your life. But, as you will never know it, you hate that mother fucker. You are traumatised by the experience and resent this violent act. You become more right wing in your opinions and wish for longer and harsher punishments to be dealt out to criminals, and more coppers on the beat.

By doing so, maybe you will somehow twist some other person's fate in the wrong direction.

Hitler was evil, right? But how do we know the world would be a better place if he hadn't existed. If you could go back in time and had the opportunity to finish him off before he did any real damage, could you pull the trigger with total certainty that the future you returned to would be a nicer place to live?

Didn't Hitler actually bring about the almost total destruction of fascism, by uniting the free world against it? What if Hitler had died in WW1? Perhaps fascism would have crept more cleverly and insidiously to ultimate power and we could now still be under it's brutal thumb.

Who are we to play with fate?

So, next time someone wrongs you, before you curse their name, consider that they may have just done you a favour.

Another Cool Quote

Spotted on this blog today:

"The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance...logic can be happily tossed out the window."

Stephen King

And on the Day of Quotes, here's some more:

ZZZZzzzzzzzzz........

Evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.

Stephen Jay Gould

Human Rights

Apparently, human rights only make sense if there's a god.

Does this make sense?

Heaven's Bouncer: "Hey, who's next?"

AH: "Er... I think it's me."

Heaven's Bouncer: "State your name."

AH: "Adolph Hitler. You can call me Herr Wolf."

HB: "Do you seek forgiveness for your sins and believe in the Lawd and Saviour Jesus Christ?"

AH: "Not really much point. You might as well give me my ticket to eternal damnation."

HB: "Yes or no?"

AH: "Listen, I know Jesus forgives and all that but, honestly, I'm well over my sin limit."

HB: "There's no sin limit, son. We're all sinners, whether you've taken the Lawd's name in vain or lead your country in a bid for territorial conquest and racial subjugation that has caused the deaths of tens of millions of people, including the systematic genocide of an estimated six million Jews, not including various other "undesirable" populations, in what is known as the Holocaust. It's all the same to me."

AH: "So it's pretty much a one-size-fits-all offer of salvation?"

HB: "You can accuse us of many a thing, but being fussy is not one of them."

AH: " Right. So what do I have to do? Presumably millenia of self-harm, salf-sacrifice, worshipping and generally arse-licking the Amighty One."

HB: " Oh, no, we don't have time for all that. Repent, don't own anything and generally stick to the old Commandments."

AH: "Sounds fair enough. I'm in."

HB: "Right. In you go. Next! Name?"

MG: "Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi."

HB: "Do you seek forgiveness for your sins and believe in the Lawd and Saviour Jesus Christ?"

MG: "Nope."

HB: "Fiery misery for you, then, mate."

MG: "But I'm the pioneer of Satyagraha—a philosophy that is largely concerned with truth and 'resistance to evil through active, non-violent resistance'—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world."

HB: "Big deal. Pray to the Lawd or burn."

MG: "God is Truth and Truth is God. I seek to become closer to my god by means of spiritual and practical puri... AGGHHHH!!!"

Ghandi is suddenly consumed by the fire of Eternal Damnation...

Tim's (Very Silly) Reason's For God cont...

OK so Tim steps up to Rung 2 (you realise it takes more faith to disbelieve than to believe). He starts with the old: the probability of life existing is so small that it is ridiculous to suggest it just happened by chance. He makes an analogy with a poker player getting hand after hand of straight aces and suggests any normal person would 'slug the guy' for cheating.

This goes back to what I was saying in an earlier post - religion likes to appeal to 'common sense'. 'Everybody knows' if someone got 23 consecutive poker hands of straight aces they'd be cheating.

The problem is, nobody really knows what the odds for life-creation are. Nobody really knows what the Universe is, how big it is, how it got here, if there was anything before it or if there will be anything after it. Tim has already said his god exists outside the Universe. Mate, it's hard enough dealing with shit inside this Universe, if you're going to start looking outside it you can forget concepts such as probability.

How could you look at nature and say there's something wrong with it? To believe in human rights is to say everything else in nature is wrong.

Nope.

Tim's trying to say humans aren't like the rest of nature. Because we act against the 'survival of the fittest' principle.

No we don't. Those who think we do don't understand the principle. My evidence: 9 BILLION people by 2050. Why? - because we look after each other, use our intelligence and work in social groups to create systems by which we are THE fittest primate species on this planet, right now.

We're not the only species to work in this way, either. It's just we have the intelligence to really exploit it.

If there is a God, human rights make sense. If there is no God, human rights don't make sense.

Oh.... sigh... groan... fuck me... I hate these halfwits... make them stop... please make them stop...

Human rights makes perfect sense to me. But perhaps that's because I've spent more than 13 seconds thinking about it. Christians have burnt people, tortured people, eaten their heathen babies, stuck them on spikes, you name it, Christians have done it to their fellow humans.

Meanwhile, human societies have developed. In general, the wealthier a nation is, the more able it is to protect its citizens and the more able those citizens are to demand protection. Some wealthy countries, like the USA, let those protections slip (Unsubscribe-me.org). It's not fullproof. But, in general...

Is this so hard to understand?

Tim seems to be saying we need to explain the existence of human rights and the best way to explain them is by saying God exists.

No, Tim. Human rights exist because humans exist.

Belief in God makes more sense of life, right?

Yes, that a god would create a bunch of beings even though he didn't need them and knowing they would go bad he set up some deal where he would sacrifice himself to himself and then if those creatures believed that he had they would exist in Happy Forever while the creatures who didn't would live in Unhappy Forever.

Yes, Tim, that really makes my life make sense.

And that's about it in terms of the 'reasons' for God. The third rung is all about commitment. Now that you realise it takes less faith to believe in God than to reject him, you have to invest in your belief... blah blah blah.

So, to sum up, the reasons to believe in a god are... I think I'll break these down into 3 rungs:

rung 1) because otherwise you have to think properly about things. If you just believe 'God done it' then that explains everything without you having to think at all.

rung 2) now that you've stopped thinking, you're stupid enough to go out an buy Tim's book and make him very wealthy indeed.

rung 3) ...

2... 1... and you're back in the room!