(August 31, 2014 at 9:50 am)Michael Wrote: But I am perplexed by some of my scientific colleagues who are reluctant to engage with young earth creationism. It does come across as wanting to wrap evolution in cotton wool and to protect it from other perspectives.I think it is more the recognition that YECs are not seeking to improve scientific understanding through questions and debate; they seek to revamp that understanding completely based on a claim of absolute and certain knowledge. You don't have to be a YEC to question current theories and knowledge about the Earth and its past, and scientists can continue to challenge each other and further their knowledge and understanding without throwing a god-shaped wrench into the works.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
