4 ms·

Having no spiritual beliefs/religion (aka atheism) satisfies human desires. Ex. Evolution has several flaws and can never be proven. Even scientifically it ca

by ramoq 17y ago

Having no spiritual beliefs/religion (aka atheism) satisfies human desires. Ex. Evolution has several flaws and can never be proven. Even scientifically it cannot be proven. It is purely the fruit of an individual's imagination, conviction and desire. Nothing more than this.

Locke1689 17y ago
"Scientifically" nothing can be proven. Theories are simple suppositions (hypotheses) supported by evidence. When we have found an overwhelming body of evidence in support of a particular theory we consider that theory "proven." By this standard, we can consider evolution "proven." In essence, it would take a significantly large corpus of data to refute the theory of evolution.
- jswinghammer 17y ago
  With empirical observations it takes mountains of evidence to prove your case and just one piece of evidence to disprove it.
  - gjm11 17y ago
    That's rather an oversimplification in practice. "Just one piece of evidence" can almost always be explained in many, many different ways. Overturning an apparently well-established theory generally takes a substantial accumulation of contrary evidence, and preferably the appearance of a new and better theory. So, suppose someone found a fossil rabbit in the Precambrian. J B S Haldane notwithstanding, biologists would not abandon evolution, nor should they. They'd start looking at possibilities like fraud; previously unknown ways for things to get fossilized very rapidly; some screwup in their dating of the relevant bits of rock; and so forth. It would take a whole lot of fossil rabbits, and preferably some other evidence too, to make "evolution is all wrong" a better theory than those. That doesn't mean evolution is unfalsifiable; it means it's got a whole lot of evidence and arguments behind it, and overturning it would take a correspondingly large weight of evidence.

4 ms·

Having no spiritual beliefs/religion (aka atheism) satisfies human desires. Ex. Evolution has several flaws and can never be proven. Even scientifically it ca

by ramoq 17y ago

Locke1689 17y ago
"Scientifically" nothing can be proven. Theories are simple suppositions (hypotheses) supported by evidence. When we have found an overwhelming body of evidence in support of a particular theory we consider that theory "proven." By this standard, we can consider evolution "proven." In essence, it would take a significantly large corpus of data to refute the theory of evolution.
- jswinghammer 17y ago
  With empirical observations it takes mountains of evidence to prove your case and just one piece of evidence to disprove it.
  - gjm11 17y ago
    That's rather an oversimplification in practice. "Just one piece of evidence" can almost always be explained in many, many different ways. Overturning an apparently well-established theory generally takes a substantial accumulation of contrary evidence, and preferably the appearance of a new and better theory. So, suppose someone found a fossil rabbit in the Precambrian. J B S Haldane notwithstanding, biologists would not abandon evolution, nor should they. They'd start looking at possibilities like fraud; previously unknown ways for things to get fossilized very rapidly; some screwup in their dating of the relevant bits of rock; and so forth. It would take a whole lot of fossil rabbits, and preferably some other evidence too, to make "evolution is all wrong" a better theory than those. That doesn't mean evolution is unfalsifiable; it means it's got a whole lot of evidence and arguments behind it, and overturning it would take a correspondingly large weight of evidence.