Science Talk

Desertphile · Guest

This article is the text of my latest YouTube video, which may be
viewed at:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=45Zt_pPge1o

I realize the analogy is not a very good one. Also, I did not
strick completely to the test.

--- video text ---

Hi. This video is about two different things: evolution and
evolutionary theory. But first, I must eat a cookie.

-- eat cookie --

Ah, good stuff. This cookie, by the way is evolution. This cookie
is observed to exist in the world, well, the part I didn't eat
yet, and one can weight it, measure it, smell it, taste it, and
come to some conclusions about how it was made.

-- hold up box --

This box of cookie mix may not look like it, but it is
evolutionary theory. Listed on the side is the ingredients of what
went into the cookie, and on the back is the instructions about
how the cookie was probably made: temperature, egg added, water
added, how it was stirred, and how long it was baked in the oven.

Note these are two totally different things: a cookie, and a set
of instructions on how the cookie was made.

-- eat cookie --

Argh, need milk.

Evolution is a process that is observed in the natural world. One
can see it and measure it by the evidence it has left behind in
the fossil record, in genetics, in comparative anatomy and
phenotypes, in geographic distribution of species, and even, in my
opinion, comparative behavior (among other evidences).

The theory of evolution is not evolution no more than a cookie
recipe is a cookie. The theory of evolution is an explanation of
how evolution worked and works.

I kind of wish I had some cheese enchiladas to go with this
cookie....

Scientists working in the evolutionary sciences, such as
biologists, paleontologists, geneticists, geologists, and others,
work with evolution every day. They therefore find it extremely
odd, and often annoying, to come across people who insist not
merely that evolutionary theory is wrong, but that evolution
itself did not and does not happen. This is like telling a baker
that there are no such things as cookies. Some times this
frustrates scientists because such blind and impervious ignorance
cannot be reasoned with.

Creationists love to deliberately conflate evolution with
evolutionary theory: they wish their victims to believe evolution
and evolutionary theory are the same thing. "Evolution is only a
theory," they claim, which is a deliberate and cunning lie. To say
such a thing is to say that a cookie is only a recipe. Of course
if they went into a cookie store to buy a cookie and the baker
sells them a scrap of paper with a cookie recipe on it, they will
immediately, one presumes, emphatically object.

Evolution and evolutionary theory; cookie and cookie recipe. All
four things are different.

Got any milk?

--
http://desertphile.org
Desertphile's Desert Soliloquy. WARNING: view with plenty of water
"Why aren't resurrections from the dead noteworthy?" -- Jim Rutz

SJAB1958 · Guest

On 31 May, 05:33, Desertphile <desertph...@nospam.org> wrote: