This past week I came across an article titled, “Evolution is a Fact and a Theory,” from The TalkOrigins Archive. The article is written by an evolutionist, Laurence Moran, and seeks to explain why the attacks of creationists against the theory of evolution are invalid.
In the article Moran quotes from a 1981 article, written by Stephen J. Gould, that appeared in Discover Magazine in 1981. Gould asserts that certain aspects of evolution are a matter of fact, and others are a matter of theory.
Evolutionists have been very clear about this distinction of fact and theory from the very beginning, if only because we have always acknowledged how far we are from completely understanding the mechanisms (theory) by which evolution (fact) occurred. Darwin continually emphasized the difference between his two great and separate accomplishments: establishing the fact of evolution, and proposing a theory–natural selection–to explain the mechanism of evolution.
Much of what Gould says is correct. The word evolution simply means change. Science can easily document that changes occur in organisms due to mutations. No competent individual would deny that this happens.
While this is true, it also must be noted that changes of such magnitude to create whole new “kinds” from previous “kinds” has neither been demonstrated scientifically, nor documented in the fossil record. As such, when evolutionists champion the fact of evolution, they overstep bounds and confuse the issue. This of course, if the very thing they charge creationists with doing.
Moran does that very thing in his article. Note the following quote:
Examples of evolution that are readily apparent include the fact that modern populations are evolving and the fact that two closely related species share a common ancestor. The evidence that Homo sapiens and chimpanzees share a recent common ancestor falls into this category. There is so much evidence in support of this aspect of primate evolution that it qualifies as a fact by any common definition of the word “fact.”
It is a fact that modern populations continue to change. It is not a fact that two closely related species share a common ancestor. That is theory. It is a supposition based upon a naturalistic interpretation of the data. Creationists have their own theory on the matter, that simply and fully explains the similarities between chimpanzees and humans. God made them both!
Please consider that the evolutionist works within this framework of naturalism. This presupposition leads him to dismiss the idea of the supernatural as untenable. The existence of God can not be verified in the laboratory, but that does not “prove” He does not exist!
You may also note that evolutionists remain far away from understanding and validating the “mechanisms (theory) by which evolution (fact) occurred.” Charles Darwin couldn’t do it, it was not done when Gould wrote his article in Discover Magazine 28 years ago, and is still not doable in 2009. In fact, it is not doable at all.
The concept of General Evolution as the explanation of the origin of either the universe, life or man is not proven and is, in fact, not provable. It is a naturalistic interpretation of data. That is all it is. A supernatural interpretation has every bit as much validity, and actually does a much better job of explaining how we got here! “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
