RE: The Creationists' Nightmare
June 14, 2012 at 9:16 am
(This post was last modified: June 14, 2012 at 9:20 am by The Grand Nudger.)
A more direct response to this "evolution of the gaps" bullshit-
It isn't the gaps in the fossil record which we invoke when we propose EbNS, it is what we have. Those gaps could just as easily disabuse us of some particular notion as they could reinforce them, which is why, for example, I asked for a pre-cambrian platypus. EbNS is accepted as our best explanation and assigned a degree of provisional certitude not based on what we assume to find but what we do find. We make assumptions about what might be present in those gaps based upon our interpretation of what we do have so that our theory is subject to falsification. The strength of this approach is that it doesn't devolve into a litany of what-if's based upon ignorance. Attempt to explain the unknown by reference to the known. If we attempted to explain the unknown by reference to the unknown what sort of answers do you imagine we'd end up with (and just how would we go about doing that in the first place, btw)?
It isn't the gaps in the fossil record which we invoke when we propose EbNS, it is what we have. Those gaps could just as easily disabuse us of some particular notion as they could reinforce them, which is why, for example, I asked for a pre-cambrian platypus. EbNS is accepted as our best explanation and assigned a degree of provisional certitude not based on what we assume to find but what we do find. We make assumptions about what might be present in those gaps based upon our interpretation of what we do have so that our theory is subject to falsification. The strength of this approach is that it doesn't devolve into a litany of what-if's based upon ignorance. Attempt to explain the unknown by reference to the known. If we attempted to explain the unknown by reference to the unknown what sort of answers do you imagine we'd end up with (and just how would we go about doing that in the first place, btw)?
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