Science and creationism

[Doug Yanega]

>>To me evolution is a fact. It is demonstrably true and has been
>demonstrated
>>to be true.
>
>How can anyone possibly know what happened thousands or even millions of
>years ago? I think we know more now about this than we did when the bible
>was written. But I still think there is a lot more to be learned.

Maybe you've not been paying attention, but evolution - including
speciation - is not something that happened in the past and then stopped
happening. I can take you into a lab, give you a certain two fish species,
and if you put them in a tank and mate them, the offspring will be a new
parthenogenetic species (that can't breed with either of its parents). That
is what people mean by "demonstrable". I can give you a garden full of
plants, and some teratogens, and you can also create new polyploid species
that way. Both of these classes of phenomena occur out there every day in
nature, and if no one told you it happens, then maybe you can be forgiven
for not realizing it. Now you know. Making new species isn't as hard as you
thought. Macroevolution happens.

Peace,


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
                http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82