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To: Go_Raiders

Well said. One quibble: I’m not sure it’s accurate to say that “theories that are considered proven absolutely are called Laws.” Laws express observations, like the Law of Gravity that two things attract in proportion to their mass and in inverse proportion to the square of their distance. Various Theories of Gravity attempt to explain why that should be so, but even without any of them being proven, the Law of Gravity stands.

In your examples, I’d say #1 is close to a law. It’s up to some theory of genetics to explain why the mutations occur.

Another law-like observation might be that organisms can be categorized into hierarchical groups based on morphological similarities et al. The Theory of Evolution explains why that should be so.

Finally, in addition to your list of non-contradicting observations, I’d add the confirmatory ones. For example, with some exceptions, the hierarchical categories have tended to be confirmed by later observations of a sort that didn’t exist when the categories were first created, e.g. genome sequencing confirming the closeness of our relationship to the other apes.


75 posted on 04/07/2014 11:40:48 AM PDT by Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
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To: Ha Ha Thats Very Logical
Another law-like observation might be that organisms can be categorized into hierarchical groups based on morphological similarities et al. The Theory of Evolution explains why that should be so.

There is no such thing in science as a "law like observation." There are only observations.

That is Step #1 of the Scientific Method: Observe a phenomenon.

So you observe what impresses you as a certain kind of order. So you have completed Step #1 -- You observe a phenomenon.

You then imagine a plausible explanation.

But that is not science. The mere possibility that something could be true is no more science than alchemy or voodoo.

Your frustrated science fiction writer's heart gets all excited by imagining what COULD be true.

This is Step #2 -- Formulate a hypothesis.... at least assuming that it is well-designed, coherent hypothesis.

But the fact that X is explained by Y, is a mere hypothesis -- the very definition of a hypothesis -- not proof of anything.


80 posted on 04/07/2014 2:14:15 PM PDT by Moseley (http://www.MoseleyComments.com)
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