“Evolution is both theory and fact”?

The "fact of human evolution" according to T. H. Huxley. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.




Joel Kontinen


Richard Dawkins said that evolution made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. No wonder, then, that many latter day atheists are aghast at any criticism of Darwinian evolution.

For instance Austin Cline of About.com recently showed his displeasure at people who would dare doubt Darwinism. He claimed that evolution “is both theory and fact”. In the same context he said, “Everything in science is supposed to proceed by tentative theories rather than dogmatic pronouncements.”

Obviously, seen from an atheistic perspective, “evolution is fact” is not a dogmatic pronouncement. Yet many Darwinists have a prior commitment to a certain dogma. Richard Lewinton confessed that scientists often choose to make up “unsubstantiated just-so stories ” because they “have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism… Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.”

In other words, if a tentative theory points to a designer, it is excluded – on philosophical grounds. It is no wonder Dr. Henry Morris called his last book Some Call It Science.

The problem with Darwinian evolution is that it only allows naturalistic explanations. It is not a search for truth or even for knowledge.


Sources:

Cline, Austin. 2009. Evolution and the Law: Textbook Disclaimers. About. com: atheism. (23 June).
http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/evo/blevo_law_disclaimers.htm?nl=1

Lewinton, Richard. 1997. Billions and billions of demons. The New York Review of Books, p. 31, (9 January 1997).

Morris, Henry M. 2006. Some Call It Science. The Religion of Evolution. El Cayon, CA: Institute for Creation Research.