Evolution Is Only A Theory

so where science is filled with doubt skepticism willingness to learn openness to correction faith is exactly the opposite I'm going to tell two anecdotes to illustrate the difference curt wise is an American geologist highly qualified trained at the University of Chicago and at Harvard in geology and paleontology under Steve Gould no less but he had a fatal weakness he was infected with deep faith early in his life and he couldn't shake it off and as he grew older after he graduated he became increasingly uneasy about the mismatch the incompatibility between his Sciences geology his Haley ontology and his scripture and one evening he put it to the test with a pair of scissors he got a Bible he went right through the whole Bible with a pair of scissors cutting out physically cutting out every verse in the Bible that would have to go if he were to accept the scientific worldview that he'd learned at Chicago and Harvard I quote try as I might and even with the benefit of intact margin throughout the pages of Scripture I found it impossible to pick up the Bible without it being rent in to I had to make a decision between evolution and Scripture either the scripture was true and evolution was wrong or evil ushion was true and I must toss out the Bible it was there that night that I accepted the Word of God and rejected all that would ever counter it including evolution with that in great sorrow I tossed into the fire all my dreams and hopes in science I think that's a tragic story I think that anything in this case faith that can do that to a man like Curt wise is a force for evil and if it can do that to a highly educated scientist like Kurt wise just think what it can do to the rest of the population my contrasting story is of a scientist an elderly scientist who was a senior figure in my department at Oxford when I was an undergraduate for years this old man when I say old he's probably about the same age I am now so I would be careful he had taught us and he had believed that at the Golgi apparatus which is a piece of submicroscopic a piece of microscopic apparatus inside most cells he believed that the Golgi apparatus was an artefact he thought it didn't exist and he had written paper after paper after paper on this he'd lectured to us undergraduates about this and then one day an American cell biologist came and gave a public lecture in our department in which he demonstrated beyond all possible doubt that the Golgi apparatus was real our old man strode to the front of the lecture hall shook him by the hand and said My dear fellow I wish to thank you I have been wrong these 15 years and all of us applauded till our hands were red and none of us will ever have forgotten that incident that is science at its best that's the very opposite of faith that's knowing when you're wrong and even being pleased to be disproved that's a bit of an of an ideal but that's what he did what finally baffles me is the way our society all of our society has limply bought into the idea that faith should somehow be treated with exaggerated respect even secular individuals have come to accept the idea that faith should somehow be immune to criticism simply because it is faith where you would gladly criticize somebody's political views or their artistic tastes or their football team or their views on hunting or gun ownership or something like that when it comes to faith we are all expected to back off and say no no we can't criticize faith it isn't done not good manners to criticize faith well I think it's about time we started criticizing faith the truth is that without this convention of good manners which pervades our society faith couldn't withstand criticism because it has no resources with which to do the withstanding how can you defend a position when there are by definition no arguments in its favor so my suggestion is that we should henceforth abandon our social convention of automatic respect for religious faith finally just to make the point that this only a theory you all have seen that in criticisms of evolution evolution is only a theory it's one of the crosses we have to bear if you'll pardon the expression isn't it ironic that this only a theory actually stems from the non arrogance of science because scientists are careful enough and cautious enough to say that everything they know is only a theory which is just awaiting disproof yet that humility comes back and bites us in the form of the criticism evolution is only a theory which implies that it is in doubt HL Mencken said we must respect the other fellows religion but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart thank you very much thank you very much

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Views: 802,174

Rating: 4.7225795 out of 5

Keywords: Science, Evolution, Is, Only, Theory, Richard, Dawkins, Pop, Tech, God, Delusion, Atheist, Experience, Amazing, Atheists, Atheism, Christianity, Christians, Religion, Darwin, Islam, Islamic, Muslim, Intelligent, Design, ID, Religious, Faith, Belief, Bible, Jesus, Christ, Satan, Hell, Catholic, Quran, Koran, Young, Earth, Creation, Creationists, Creationism, Reason, Hitchens, Secular, Humanists, Community, Freethinker

Id: mLeztJkhi4U

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/Daemonax]

Richard Dawkins believes sciences ability to admit ignorance is one of its greatest strengths. On the flip side, he proposes that faith remains arrogant and all too certain of its validity without any rational set of proofs.

That is indeed what makes science so much better. Science is begging for someone to come along and conclusively show the errors in our theories. It's open to anyone to be tested and if it's wrong, disproven.

Religion on the other hand takes offense at having its faults pointed out.

This is one of the fundamental reasons that science progresses and has as a result made our lives better. Religion on the other hand while it may progress a little, keeps falling back to bronze age stupidity.

Science has learning experiences! It learns from its mistakes.

Religion clings to its mistakes... For example, while the Catholic church may not now claim we're the center of the universe, they now claim that we're the pinnacle of evolution, a goal that god set evolution in motion in order to reach..... They still can't see that they're as anthropocentric as they were when they claimed we were the centre of the universe.