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To: Right Wing Professor
Professor,

Do you not recognize the difference between the LAWS of thermodynamics and the THEORY of evolution? Truly?

Incredible.
36 posted on 03/11/2003 4:19:29 PM PST by edger
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To: edger
Do you not recognize the difference between the LAWS of thermodynamics and the THEORY of evolution? Truly?

The difference is purely a matter of nomeclature, and is an accident of history. Evolution is a scientific law in the same sense as any other scientific law.

Incredible.

Want to know another amazing fact? The world isn't flat, it's nearly spherical.

37 posted on 03/11/2003 4:23:24 PM PST by Right Wing Professor
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To: edger
Do you not recognize the difference between the LAWS of thermodynamics and the THEORY of evolution? Truly?

Yes, indeed he does. You clearly don't, however.

Your misconception is so basic that it can be addressed by this website introducing children to science.

They say, "A scientific law describes an observed regularity of nature, like 'air resistance causes falling objects to reduce their speed.' It is a generalization that scientists make from their research findings. A useful scientific law can be used to accurately predict what will happen in many situations."

As for theory, they say, "A scientific theory is an interrelated collection of concepts and models, which together form a rich system that can describe, predict, and explain some phenomena. You see, any phenomena can be represented with several different types of models. And, you often need more than one type of model if you are trying to understand something deeply. This set of models, taken together, is a scientific theory. And, scientific theories form the basis for understanding and making sense of the world."

Close enough. Another way of looking at it is that a "law" is just a theory (or portion of a theory) simple enough to express in one pithy sentence.

And if you think that "laws" are somehow more "proven" or "reliable" than theories, I'll point out that Newton's laws of motion break down at speeds near the velocity of light, and the gas laws break down for low or high enough temperatures or volumes, etc.

302 posted on 03/12/2003 4:11:52 PM PST by Ichneumon
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