> Glenn wrote, in response to Moorad:
>>"If we were to find the entire panoply of modern animals, fossilized in
>>Cambrian rocks, it would clearly rule out evolution since nothing would
>>have changed and no evolution would have occurred. So, evolution is
>>clearly falsifiable. "
Burgy says...
> Moorad has already disagreed, and I find myself in agreement with him.
> What such a finding WOULD falsify is one particular view (theory)
> of evolution. But since evolution of SOME kind is the only possible
> natural explanation (see Planting on this), it would not falsify it
> at all.
Extraterrestrial drop-offs could be both non-evolutionary and
a natural explanation for a hypothetical species. Who made the
extraterrestrials? Who knows? But if you can't find 'em you
can't claim that they were products of evolution. You could only
examine the crop circles their landers left. So while the idea
may put evolution beyond the range of falsifiability, it may also
put it out of the range of _verification_. This is an important
consideration because I don't think that "falsification" is the only
goalpost in science.
> What it would do is move the debate as to where it happened to some
> place other than our earth.
Yes it would. But in so doing, it would leave the question open
indefinitely. It would also falsify the current theory that life
evolved on earth -- This is not a trivial point.
> I, with Moorad, can think of no possible way to falsify it. That does
> not make it untrue, of course. It is a philosophical point.
Any theory can be made unfalsifiable, depending on the auxiliary
propositions used in conjunction with the _core_ theory to make it
testable. "Invisible skinheads from Mars dropped off trilobites" is
one such proposition that could explain part of evolution. But what
can happen with poor theories is that the sheer mass of the many
auxiliary hypotheses required to keep the core proposition propped up
can bring the whole facade down. So the real question is, what would
be required for most reasonable scientists to abandon the idea of
evolution on earth?*
Regards,
Tim Ikeda
tikeda@sprintmail.hormel.com (despam address before use)
*"Prefrontal lobotomies" is not an option.