Monday, February 7, 2011

Blog #1: Why is evolution a theory not a law?


              A theory is more of an explanation.  A law is a pattern that natural phenomena follow.  So they're two different things.  A law is great for predicting events, because we expect the events to follow the pattern.  But the law won't explain why events follow the pattern. For that we need a theory.  Both theories and laws can turn out to be wrong, and must be tested by considering what evidence we should find if the theory or law were false, and then looking for such evidence.  A law must be confirmed and broadly agreed upon through the process of inductive reasoning.  A theory is a well-supported body of interconnected statements that explains observations and can be used to make testable predictions.  Evolution is not a law because evolution describes the mechanisms of how and why organisms change over time.  In all honesty, no scientists disbelieve evolution at this point.  There is disagreement on some of the details of the theory – the details of the how and why – but not the big questions that things evolve or even the general ideas of how and why.
                                                                                                      

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