At 08:25 AM 4/13/02, Trent wrote: >On Saturday 13 April 2002 06:12, you wrote: > > Trent wrote: > > > The quasi-creationist admitted that: > > > > > > 1) Evolution occurs, because descent with modification through > > > > natural > > > > > selection has been observed, especially in microbes. > > > > > > 2) Despite the abundant evidence of modification, no speciation > > > > through > > > > > natural selection has been observed. > > > > > > 3) Therefore, the idea that evolution drives speciation is, at best, > > > > a theory. > > > > > As near as I can tell he's @#$% right. > > > > No one alive today has observed Julius Caesar, either. Nonetheless, > > we are able to confirm his existence through secondary sources. > > > > It's a bogus argument, and one that depends entirely upon mildly > > clever word-twisting. > > > > Adam > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >It might be bogus, but not because it relies on word-play. A better analogy >would be that while there is abundant evidence that HIV causes aids, it is >still *possible* that HIV is a *symptom* caused by something else. But, >given available evidence HIV is very, very, very much the preferred suspect.
Except to a vocal minority who call themselves "AIDS dissidents." They claim that what has been called "AIDS" during the past couple of decades is nothing more than a catch-all name for a variety of diseases that have been around for years and have a variety of causes. One of the earliest members of this group was a Dr. Duseberg (I don't recall his first name at the moment) who suggested that the modern epidemic of AIDS in homosexual men might be due to drug use by that group of people rather than an infectious agent. His ideas have fallen into disfavor among at least some of the dissidents, though, as his hypothesis still suggests that a causative relationship exists between homosexual behavior and AIDS, whereas at least some of those in the dissident camp are themselves asymptomatic HIV+ practicing homosexuals who deny that their behavior has *anything* to do with the illness that is killing many of their friends and lovers. (Suggesting that there might be any such link between behavior and AIDS is labeled as "homophobic.") Some of them credit their current freedom from symptoms despite testing positive for HIV to various dietary supplements or other "alternative" treatments rather than the mainstream hypothesis that AIDS symptoms develop at different rates in different people. >In the case of evolution, there is no direct evidence that it *causes* >speciation. However, there are also no other viable suspects. > >Now a creationist will say, aha, there is another, indeed more probable >suspect, namely God. > >The problem is that science doesn't know about this God thing. "Assume God >did it." Is not science, its theology. This idea is known as the "God of the gaps" model. Essentially, they say that the "gaps" in our current evolutionary models represent the places where God has intervened. >Even if we posit a science that allows for "God did it," that really doesn't >get us anywhere. We are still left with "how?" In the case of speciation it >is particularly problematic because it is *very* clear that species are not >immutable, so an appeal to the miraculous is no more allowable than in the >case of human growth and development. > >One can hold that growth and development are miraculous, but not in the same >sense as the resurection of Lazerus. If speciation is miraculous it is in >the same category as growth and development, as a quotditan miracle that must >be regarded as amenable to reasoned inquiry. -- Ronn! :) God bless America, Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam� God bless America! My home, sweet home. -- Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
