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Re: [Phys-l] Is evolution something to believe in?



I agree with Cliff and Hugh and others that the question posed
by the Subject: line is an objectionable question.

I would perhaps explain the objections slightly differently.
To my ears, the word "belief" covers a wide range:

[---------------belief--------------]
[---blind faith---][-----knowledge--]

/\ -->
no increasing
evidence evidence

For present purposes, I will use "knowledge" to refer to things
we believe on the basis of good evidence. "Blind faith" refers
to things we believe in the absence of good evidence, or in
defiance of good evidence. Belief covers the whole range of
possibilities.

Therefore I would not say that "belief" necessarily refers to
unscientific belief. That's not the problem. The problem is
that you _don't know_ whether it refers to scientific or to
unscientific belief. Therefore no matter how you answer the
given question, you can expect to be misunderstood. We don't
need questions like this.

=========

Another problem with belief versus disbelief is that it is
generally treated as a categorical, yes/no question.

We should not generally think in such terms, and we should not
teach others to think in such terms. Usually it is better to
ask more nuanced questions about the weight of the evidence and
the range of validity.

In /some/ cases the weight of evidence is so overwhelming that
one can get away with categorical statements, but even then one
needs to be careful. For example, most people "believe" the sun
rises in the east. This seems like a well-founded scientific
belief. However it is not an entirely reliable fact, especially
in the arctic in the winter.

Closer to the topic of this thread, you have to be careful because
for every qualitatively correct explanation of evolution, there
are a thousand incorrect explanations. Consider the contrast:
-- The species evolves.
-- The individual does not evolve in the same way.
-- Rocks do not evolve in the same way.
(There is no good phylogenetic tree of rocks.)