Science particularly as related to creation and the creation-evolution controversy
The Darwinian evolution paradigm is based on the evolution paradigm and forms a “bundle of theories” that are contrary to the special creation paradigm. It concerns the origin and development of organic life on earth. 1. Science and History The subject of natural history is primarily natural science and secondarily history. The laws and generalizations […]
We have some knowledge but it is not complete knowledge, not even arguably near complete. So what should we do about the areas where knowledge is lacking? We should certainly continue to investigate. But what do we say in the mean time? What can we justify saying about the unknown side of partial knowledge? There
There are several criteria commonly used to select the best scientific theory, including consistency, confirmation, and comprehensiveness. We discuss two criteria in particular: (1) “Avoid metaphysics.” Modern science has a long history of avoiding metaphysics. Science was often contrasted with the wrangling of metaphysicians. While some metaphysical assumptions/presuppositions may be inevitable, a theory is preferred
There are three modes of science: descriptive, explanatory, and applied. The descriptive mode consists of systematic observation of phenomena followed by discovery and empirical confirmation of general laws covering regularities in the observations. The explanatory mode uses the observations and laws with assumptions that fill in gaps to tell a story of how and why
The term “paradigm” shall be used to indicate what Imré Lakatos called “research programmes.” For Lakatos, what we think of as a ‘theory’ may actually be a succession of slightly different theories and experimental techniques developed over time, that share some common idea, or what Lakatos called their ‘hard core’. Lakatos called such changing collections
The main problem with evolution is not that it has the wrong history but that for evolution history is everything. That’s everything including the laws of nature, philosophy, religion, God, literally everything. The one law of evolution is that everything evolves. There is no being, only becoming; there is nothing fixed, only change. But surely they
Auditors have discovered a million dollars missing in the accounts of the venerable First Bank. What is the explanation? (1) There has been no impropriety; small rounding errors of a few pennies have occurred many times over many years, which happened to add up to a million dollars. (2) There was an embezzlement of a million dollars. This is
Based on the most developed sciences, physics and chemistry, I suggest each science eventually goes through the following five stages: Stage 1. The Nascent Stage is characterized by monistic ideas such as ‘everything is a form of water’ (e.g., Thales). Stage 2. The Classical Stage is characterized by unaided observation and commonplace ideas such as
In their book “What is Creation Science?” Henry Morris and Gary Parker contrast the evolution and creation world views/models and state: “The second world view–creation–maintains that the universe is not self-contained, but that it must have been created by processes which are not continuing as natural processes in the present.” They go on to say:
The word “creation” in theological and philosophical circles means (1) “creation from nothing”, that is, the transcendent and self-existing God producing other entities without starting from something pre-existing. However, that is not the only meaning of “creation” in the Bible or common usage. The other meaning is (2) making something from something, particularly, making something more
