Sunday, August 10, 2008

PZ Watch 8.10.08

PZ Meyers makes the statement to which I wish all would attend and comprehend.
"What [Ray] Comfort [creationist] cannot comprehend is that there is no one absolute make-or-break piece of evidence for evolution — evolution is a conclusion from the totality of the evidence. There are thousands of cases that demonstrate that the principles of evolution work and are useful for understanding the natural world; there are no cases where creationism has improved our understanding.
Neither ID/YEC nor biology has made the bullet-proof case for or against evolution. Biology accumulates mountains of circumstantial evidence, and then claims that although it appears like design, one must remember that it is not design, it is evolution. The stories that accompany the mountains of circumstantial data are the key to belief, a belief without proof, a faith.

It is unusual to hear such a thing from a devout believer in evolution, such as PZ. Due to his visibility as a celebrity of the Atheist faith, it carries a weight in culture for those who read him. He is right that ID/YEC are not capable of producing anything more than a different outlook on the data; after all the data does give the appearance of creation - if one forgets the admonition that it cannot have been created, by definition - by fiat - of the biologists.

The biological fiat of Materialism is said to be necessary in order to eliminate God's foot from entering the door of science; science would fail if it were not strictly materialist. However, if that were true physics would have to stop before entering the realms of quantum collapse and multidimensional string theory. Is science Atheistic, or is it avariciously rational? There is a huge difference.

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