Re: [asa] Is evolution a fact?

The only way this question can even make sense is to make it clear what is meant by "evolution." Once that is done, then one can reasonably say (as I do) that "evolution is a fact and a theory."

I prefer not to talk about "evolution" since the word is almost meaningless in isolation. Common descent is one major facet of "evolution", and while I find it to be scientifically beyond dispute, I refer to common descent as an "explanation" or as a "theory" but not usually as a "fact." This is not because I think there is any doubt at all about common ancestry. It's because most people think of "facts" as things that can be observed and documented directly. (The actual distinction between "facts" and theories is not nearly that clear, IMO.) But when we -- in the Neo-Darwinian era, with our knowledge of genetics -- talk of "descent with modification," wherein a population is seen to be altered genetically through time, resulting in varying degrees of morphological and/or physiological change, we are discussing a fact. Evolutionary change, defined in that way, is better documented than any aspect of, for example, human developmental biology, and is as much a fact as anything ever described by science.

And I think your linkage of "origin of life" questions with "evolution" -- in the absence of a clear indication of your intentions regarding the use of the word "evolution" -- is a mistake. Many evolutionary theorists are quite adamant about leaving abiogenesis out of the evolutionary picture; Darwin himself made this crystal clear in the famous closing lines of the Origin. I strongly recommend that you examine Steve Martin's summary and commentary on Allan Harvey's excellent discussion of the meanings of "evolution." These issues have been discussed extensively on this listserv, quite recently if I'm not mistaken.

All of this is to say that it not an error, obvious or otherwise, to refer to evolution as a "fact", once one has made it reasonably clear what one means by "evolution."

Steve Matheson

Steve Martin's post:
http://evanevodialogue.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-does-evolution-mean-framework-for.html
  
>>> "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com> 05/27/08 7:05 PM >>>
What do you all think? I keep hearing some say that "evolution is a
fact." I don't think so. Evolution is a grand overarching theory to
explain how everything complex came from something very simple. How can
it be a fact when certain parts are unknown, such as "origin of life."
Therefore, isn't it an obvious error to say that "evolution is a fact?"

I think Dawkins calls it a fact, as well as an evolutionary Christian I
heard the other day in a DVD.

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Received on Tue May 27 21:06:41 2008