here's an idea
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 3:06 am
I have a theory: Aliens created life. Living organisms are just too complex to have evolved as Charles Darwin suggested. There are missing pieces in the fossil record that makes me question the evolution of living organisms. I also have a theory that maybe aliens set evolution in motion. But it's just a theory. I don't have any evidence to support the idea.
I'm kidding, of course. But my so-called theory shows how the word is used loosely by everyday people to refer to an unproven idea.
A scientific theory is not the same thing.
A theory in science is supported by strong evidence - Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum theory, mathematical theory, evolution. An idea in science is called a hypothesis, and it has to be tested. Once it is repeatedly tested, it can become a theory - widely accepted and used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
The theory of evolution can't just be dismissed as another idea about how life began.
Yet those who support offering the idea of intelligent design in public classrooms around America are angling for people to believe evolution is just another idea. And they want students in science classes to consider as scientific theory their idea: Certain features of the universe are so complex that the most plausible explanation is that they are products of an intelligent cause or agent.
But intelligent design is not a scientific alternative to evolution. It's no more an alternative than our alien "theory."
Neither has undergone the scientific process to test a hypothesis.
Yet, unless a federal court intervenes, ninth-graders at a school in Dover, Pa., will hear the following this fall in a biology class:
"Because Darwin's theory is a theory, it is still being tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact . . . Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view."
Students are then told a reference book is available if they want to explore intelligent design.
Let them explore. But don't lead them to believe intelligent design is a scientific alternative to evolution. Not in a science class, anyway.
Intelligent design belongs in classes about comparative religions or logic. In logic, for example, students will learn that punching holes in Darwin's theory doesn't mean intelligent design is true. A supposed absence of evidence for one idea doesn't automatically make another valid.
To believe that, short of further scientific testing, students will need faith.
Not science.
I'm kidding, of course. But my so-called theory shows how the word is used loosely by everyday people to refer to an unproven idea.
A scientific theory is not the same thing.
A theory in science is supported by strong evidence - Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum theory, mathematical theory, evolution. An idea in science is called a hypothesis, and it has to be tested. Once it is repeatedly tested, it can become a theory - widely accepted and used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
The theory of evolution can't just be dismissed as another idea about how life began.
Yet those who support offering the idea of intelligent design in public classrooms around America are angling for people to believe evolution is just another idea. And they want students in science classes to consider as scientific theory their idea: Certain features of the universe are so complex that the most plausible explanation is that they are products of an intelligent cause or agent.
But intelligent design is not a scientific alternative to evolution. It's no more an alternative than our alien "theory."
Neither has undergone the scientific process to test a hypothesis.
Yet, unless a federal court intervenes, ninth-graders at a school in Dover, Pa., will hear the following this fall in a biology class:
"Because Darwin's theory is a theory, it is still being tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact . . . Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view."
Students are then told a reference book is available if they want to explore intelligent design.
Let them explore. But don't lead them to believe intelligent design is a scientific alternative to evolution. Not in a science class, anyway.
Intelligent design belongs in classes about comparative religions or logic. In logic, for example, students will learn that punching holes in Darwin's theory doesn't mean intelligent design is true. A supposed absence of evidence for one idea doesn't automatically make another valid.
To believe that, short of further scientific testing, students will need faith.
Not science.