From the Wiki ... Quote:
Evolution as theory and fact in the literature
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This confusion between "fact" and "theory" in the study of evolution was explored in a well-known quote by Paleontologist Stephen J Gould:
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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 do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, 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.
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Similarly, Neil Campbell writes in his 1990 biology textbook,
Today, nearly all biologists acknowledge that evolution is a fact. The term theory is no longer appropriate except when referring to the various models that attempt to explain how life evolves... it is important to understand that the current questions about how life evolves in no way implies any disagreement over the fact of evolution.
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Can evolution explain, (and have achieved) all that we see around us using no other mechanism than a random sequence of events? Using no other 'weighting' than the most successful will reproduce in greater numbers than the less successful and thereby dominate the gene pool.
cool bananas ... greg
