From: lhbran@bb1t.monsanto.com
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Evolution AND or OF God??
Date: 14 Apr 92 14:03:40 CST
Organization: Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO

In Response to John (not a nobody):
	The reason that this "argument" between "creationists" and
"evolutionists" keeps raising its head is that creationists and fundamental
christians try to foist their version of creation on the society as science. 
The belief, which is held by the fundamentalists, is that God (defined in a
very specific way) created the universe and has created each and every species
in a separate creative act.  This varies somewhat allowing some development of
one species into another.  It must be stated that these are NOT UNREASONABLE
BELIEFS, and those who hold them are not less than those who do not.  But it
MUST BE UNDERSTOOD MOST EMPHATICALLY THAT CREATIONISM IS NOT SCIENCE.  Models
of reality which are held by science are arrived at via the scientific method. 
The scientific method can only be applied to hypotheses which are stated in
such a way that they are falsifiable.  That is to say, the hypothesis must be
subject to an experiment which is designed to FALSIFY the hypothesis.  The
assertion that there is a "God" which "drives" the development of life is NOT
FALSIFIABLE, and experiment cannot be devised to observe God in action,
therefore the assertion cannot be dealt with via the scientific method,
creationism is therefore not science.  The Darwinian assertion of Evolution is
a falsifiable assertion.  Many thousands of experiments have been devised to
falsify the assertion of Evolution, NONE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY FALSIFIED IT.  The
assertion, then, has become mechanistically a Theory.  The insidious (and
insipid) assertion of fundamentalists that the God hypothesis is scientific is
very dangerous to the integrity (such that it is, it is human) of science. 
Some fundamentalists even assert that the scientific community plots against
Jesus to keep him out of our society.  This is, of course, utter nonsense.  
	Over the past 50 years or so there has been constant pressure from
fundamentalist christians to include "scientific creationsim" in secondary
school science curricula. To the extent that this is successful the citizen
becomes more ignorant of what science is and becomes unable to make decisions
on technical issues and eventually becomes more at the mercy of the powerful
and authoritative.  I have been a scientist for 41 years and more and more
encounter young people who have no idea at all as to what science is, even
young people with college degrees in science.
	For my own part I am an atheist by orthodox christion standards. 
However I hold the creation and the life paradigm with great reverance.  I also
hold the human part of the Christian experience with reverance.  If you take
the supernatural nonsense, magic and meaningless ceremony out of christianity
you are left with very solid advice on that which makes life better(it is
certainly not all inclusive, however). 
Christianity (like Islam etc.) is nothing more than a mythical embodiment of
human experience.  The problem is that certain people gain personal power by
asserting the truth of the myth and burying the advice of the human experience.
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic