The Testability Of Evolution

Evolution Says .....

Evolution has been proved, because it has been tested scientifically. It has successfully passed testing by the scientific method on innumerable occasions.

The Facts Are .....

(1) "These evolutionary happenings are unique, unrepeatable, and irreversible ..... The applicability of the experimental method to the study of such unique historical processes is severely restricted before all else by the time intervals involved, which far exceed the lifetime of any human experimenter." Written by Theodosius Dobzhansky (former Emeritus Processor of Zoology and Biology, Rockefeller University, USA) in his article "On Methods of Evolutionary Biology and Anthropology - part 1, Biology" in American Scientist, Vol. 45, No. 5, 1957 p:388

(2) "Evolution, at least in the sense that Darwin speaks of it, cannot be detected within the lifetime of a single observer." Dr David B. Kitts (School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, USA) in his article "Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory", in Evolution, Vol. 28, September, 1974 p:466

(3) "It is easy enough to make up stories of how one form gave rise to another, and to find reasons why the stages should be favoured by natural selection. But such stories are not part of science, for there is no way of putting them to the test." Part of a personal letter by Dr Colin Patterson (Senior Palaeontologist, British Museum of Natural History, London) to Luther D. Sunderland. Quoted in his book "Darwin's Enigma", Master Books: San Diego (USA), 1984 p:89

(4) "Our theory of evolution has become, as Popper described, one which cannot be refuted by any possible observations. Every conceivable observation can be fitted into it. It is thus 'outside of empirical science' but not necessarily false. No one can think of ways in which to test it. Ideas, either without basis or based on a few laboratory experiments carried out in extremely simplified systems, have attained currency far beyond their validity. They have become part of an evolutionary dogma accepted by most of us as part of our training." Written by Paul Ehrlich (Professor of Biology, Stanford University, USA) and L. Charles Birch (Professor of Biology, Sydney University, NSW) in their article "Evolutionary History and Population Biology" in Nature, Vol. 214, April 22, 1967 p:352

(5) "Biologists are simply naive when they talk about experiments designed to test the theory of evolution. It is not testable. They may happen to stumble across facts which would seem to conflict with its predictions. These facts will invariably be ignored ....." Spoken by Professor Whitten (Professor of Genetics, University of Melbourne, Australia) at the 1980 Assembly Week address.

(6) "We can only imagine what probably existed, and our imagination so far has not been very helpful." Written by physical chemist Dr Richard E. Dickerson (Professor, Californian Institute of Technology) in his article "Chemical Evolution and the Origin of Life" in Scientific American, Vol. 239, No. 3, 1978 p:78

(7) "With the failure of these many efforts science was left in the somewhat embarrassing position of having to postulate theories of living origins which it could not demonstrate. After having chided the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create a mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past." Written by Dr Loren Eiseley (Anthropologist) in the book "The Immense Journey", Random House: New York, 1957 p:199

(8) "Scientists are having a hard time agreeing on when, where and - most important - how life first emerged on the earth." From John Horgan's article "Trends in Evolution: In the Beginning ....", in Scientific American, February 1991, p:100-109