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Is The Theory Of Evolution Scientifically Valid?

Opethian

Active Member
http://www.freewebtown.com/bhaktivedanta108/3_Natural_Selection_1.html said:
The first problem we encounter in trying to create a new gene via mutation/selection is defining our first beneficial mutation. By itself, no particular nucleotide (A,T,C, or G) has more value than any other - just as no letter in the alphabet has any particular meaning outside of the context of other letters. So selection for any single nucleotide can never occur, except in the context of all the surrounding nucleotides (and in fact within the context of the whole genome). Like changing a letter within a word or chapter, the change can only be evaluated in the context of all the surrounding letters. We cannot define any nucleotide as good or bad except in relation to its neighbors and their shared functionality. This brings us to an excellent example of the principle of "irreducible complexity". In fact, it is irreducible complexity at its most fundamental level. We immediately find we have a paradox. To create a new function, we will need to select for our first beneficial mutation, but we can only define that new nucleotide's value in relation to its neighbors. Yet to create any new function, we are going to have to be changing most of those neighbors also! We create a circular path for ourselves - we will keep destroying the "context" we are trying to build upon. This problem of the fundamental inter-relationship of nucleotides is called epistasis. True epistasis is essentially infinitely complex, and virtually impossible to analyze, which is why geneticists have always conveniently ignored it. Such bewildering complexity is exactly why language (including genetic language) can never be the product of chance, but requires intelligent design.

This is the first paragraph of the second link. After reading this, I stopped going further, because this is just such blatant faulty logic. The underlined is the incredible mistake he makes, based on the sentence in red, the root of his error. If nonsense like this can cause people to think that the evolution theory is faulty, or even think that it disproves evolution, I wonder how much they knew about evolution in the first place. I'd suggest reading (and understanding!) a few books about the subject before taking a stance on it, and not just posting links that you don't understand a thing about, because if you did, you would have noticed the huge errors.
 

gnostic

The Lost One
uumckk16 said:
"Evolutionists are atheists. Evolutionists are immoral. Evolutions are dictators." (Not that being atheist is bad ;).) "Devoid of any spiritual and moral values"? :eek:
I just wondered how many Creationists would know that Charles Darwin was actually an agnostic, not atheist, and a friend of the biologist, Huxley, who was Darwin's most outspoken supporter of the evolution? Huxley who was agnostic, and coined the word.

It was due to Huxley, who tried to keep religion out of science.
 

Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
gnostic said:
I just wondered how many Creationists would know that Charles Darwin was actually an agnostic, not atheist, and a friend of the biologist, Huxley, who was Darwin's most outspoken supporter of the evolution? Huxley who was agnostic, and coined the word.
Unlike you, Huxley (correctly) never counterposed agnosticism to atheism. For him agnosticism was a method.
 

gnostic

The Lost One
Was I counterposing? I didn't think I was.

It just seemed to me that the creationists always place the evolutionists with atheists, when the two scientists were actually agnostics. I just think it is myth that all science comes from atheism.

I am just wondering why people would associate any religion to science, when they are two different things. Anyone can become scientists, and still have personal religious perspectives, whether they be Christians, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, etc. I don't think science have anything to do with atheism and agnosticism as well.

What religious people should do, is stop masquerading creationism has scientific validity when it is only a primitive myth trying to explain how humans came to being.
 

logician

Well-Known Member
"I am just wondering why people would associate any religion to science, when they are two different thingsI"

In theory, yes, but religion has been always been a roadblock to science, with many scientists in the past having to claim they were religious to keep their heads off the chopping block. Even today scientific research is stymied by the religious beliefs of politicians worldwide, such as stemcell reasearch.
 
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