In the space of a few weeks, scientists suddenly realized that birds have a fundamental skeletal difference between the arrangement of their bones and the bones of the dinosaurs they supposedly descended from. No problem. We’ll just assume that birds evolved in parallel to the dinosaurs.
Excellent example. A decades-long claim of evolutionary certainty (fact) is overturned but this is “no problem” for them. Birds simply assembled themselves in a parallel process. That’s it – evolutionary theory is saved and the problem goes away.
A few weeks ago, news items explained that the evolutionary story of the origin of man is being “rewritten” by the finding of a human skull in Eastern Europe. So, the decades-old claim that humans evolved first in Africa could be refuted. But again, no problem! The story merely adds a new chapter where the characters evolved from monkeys in Africa, left Africa, travelled to Europe – lived there for over million years, then decided to return to Africa. Now, the story-tellers didn’t say that they devolved back into monkeys and then back to humans again – but why not? That would certainly help preserve “the original factual certainty” that humans evolved in Africa, from monkeys. But perhaps the tale doesn’t need to be that complicated. We just revised our timeline by a million years. That’s not bad at all. Nothing to worry about here at all!
Then mammals, which proliferated after the dinosaurs were wiped out, did not become more numerous because the dinosaurs were gone but due to a change in temperature, and as one poster pointed out, a change in oxygen level. May I respectfully ask: What was everyone breathing before this?
This was another “minor change” in the theory. For decades the “evolutionary fact” taught to children was that mammals proliferated due to catastrophic events causing extinctions. Now, the new claim is that they evolved so rapidly because of an “increase in oxygen”. Again – no problem! Perhaps a new lab experiement will show that when we increase oxygen levels, then single-celled organisms evolve into multi-celled animals. Now we know the “real facts” and only an idiot could deny the truth of what evolutionists found this time. The new findings are “more correct”. The new facts are just “better facts” – and that’s how science works, didn’t you know that you dummies! Go get a university degree so you can learn how to proclaim contradictory ideas with a smile on your face.
People like to quote Pope John Paul II, but what I rarely see is his statement that there is actual design in nature.
I rarely see his condemnation of “many theories of evolution” which are “materialist”. The only theories which are permitted are “theistic”. But I’m struggling to find those in the current scientific literature.
This makes me sincerely question why people are posting in favor of theistic evolution when all they are endorsing is the Biology textbook. The linkage between God and the text is fictional. It does not exist. The Church tells us that by using natural (non-God) human reason, we can detect God in nature.
Exactly right. I have not yet given up asking for scientific information about “theistic evolution”, but perhaps TE’ers are honest enough to know that there is none. They could be more honest by admitting that ID literature has a far deeper scientific foundation.
I’m reminded of Paul in the Bible, telling people: If Christ is not risen then your faith is in vain. Got that? If this did not actually happen, for real, you’ve got nothing.
The heresy of fideism.