On 23/09/2006, at 7:21 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
" The relationship between
fact and theory (or maybe data and hypothesis) is dynamic and not
> easily
seperated."
So is it a fact that evolution occurs because of natural selection
or is that a theory? After all the data to support natural
selection as a mechanism (maybe not the only mechanism but a
mechanism) is extremely solid as well. It comes from many
disciplines and can be direcltly proven in experiments on organisms
with short generetatiion times (bacteria viruses). To me natural
selection is a proven mechanism of evolution. Steven Pinker has
stated that it is the only explanation for the presence of
adaptations in the world.
Pinker is overstating it a bit. Natural selection is a specific
mechanism that explains a lot, and it's the foundation of selection
theories, but in recent years its being discovered that there's a lot
more going on (like organisms modulating their *own* transcription
error rates in response to environmental stress). That natural
selection is *part* of the mechanism is close to certain. But there's
way more to speciation - kin selection, sexual selection, allopatric/
synpatric speciation. We're discovering some amazing processes by
which differential survival rates are maximised.
These are all natural explicable processes, though. That natural
selection is no longer considered the only selection criterion in no
way means that evolutionary theory is "a theory in crisis", or that
there's any doubt among honest scientists that life on Earth as we
see it today evolved from common ancestors right back to prokaryotes.
These people ignore data and pre-existent well tested theories.
They rely not on facts as a whole but isolated pieces of data and
they develop theories that cannot stand the test of experience or time
Yep.
Charlie
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