"Consideration of special Creation is definitely not open for discussion, it would seem," Faulkner added.
No, no it isn't. It's not science. It's not relevant -at all- in mainstream science.
I'm just not understanding why religious people feel so threatened by evolution that they need to make asses of themselves. How does Genesis just being a myth bar you from believing in Jesus' message of peace?
Sniper Team 4 said:
When did evolution become fact? No, seriously, can someone tell me when? When I was still in school, all the way up through college, evolution was still referred to as a theory. Then is seemed like one day theory was dropped and evolution became fact. I'm curious when that happened, or was my city just slow to catch on?
Scientists use the word "theory" in a way that is a little pedantic and antiquated, and I really wish they'd pick a new word for it. A theory refers to something that is as factual as possible given the available information. A proper explanation of what exactly a scientific "theory" is would fill the better part of a textbook on philosophy and ethics of science, so let me give you the breakdown:
-The word "theory" does not mean the same thing to scientists as it does in common usage. To a scientist, a theory is an attempt at explaining an observation that fits with experimental results.
-Facts in science are observable absolutes. "Objects fall to the ground" is a directly observable absolute. They are to scientists what axioms are to mathematicians: the only way they can actually be false is if our method of seeing the universe at its most fundamental level is flawed.
-A scientific theory exists to explain the facts or the relationships between the facts
-Scientists use the word "theory" rather than "fact" for their explanations in order to leave open the possibility that they can change and to prevent dogma from hindering scientific progress. The observed facts do not change, but the technology to analyze them and the related scientific understanding can.
Some other things that are "only theories, not facts"
-Newtonian mechanics (which is no longer a valid theory, technically, but still works for most purposes, a fine example of the importance of distinguishing facts from theories and understanding their relationship)
-The Pythagorean theorem
-The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
-The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic
-The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra
-Universal gravitation
-The electromagnetic force (obviously, it's "just a theory, totally not true" since you're definitely reading this over the internet)
-Chemistry. All of chemistry, which operates on the electromagnetic force.
-The link between casual sex in back alleys and chlamydia.
-Computer theory
Shall I continue?