Re: Scientific theory

"Not to argue with you, Randy, as I believe in evolution in a Christian
context, but can you discuss a test of the theory of evolution which it
has passed, thus demonstrating for all to see that it has been
scientfically proven?

Thanks,

--Bill Yates"

I think that out of a number of tests, there are two that I find striking:

1) the theory of common descent predicts that all living organisms have DNA based on the same four, and only these four, nucleotides.
2) it also predicts that all naturally occurring DNA will have the same (left-handed as it turns out for unknown reasons) chirality.

To my knowledge, no instance has been found that violates either one of these. And I don't know of any other theory of origins that would make the same definitive prediction, though one might rationalize why it should be so. No, Darwin didn't know about DNA structure so this prediction came later, but there's an incredible amount of data that's been collected since DNA was discovered and it all seems to fit--so far.

I'm not saying whether I believe in evolution or not. But let's not reject it on the grounds that it isn't scientific or that it isn't testable.

Randy
Received on Tue Dec 7 21:20:38 2004