User talk:SeamusC

4. WHY IS NATURAL SELECTION, A PRINCIPLE RECOGNIZED BY CREATIONISTS, TAUGHT AS ‘EVOLUTION’, AS IF IT EXPLAINS THE ORIGIN OF THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE?

It is not taught as explaining the origin and diversity of life. It is taught as explaining the diversity of life. That natural selection is taught as explaining this is due to simplification: this is what is distinctive about Darwinian theory. The explanation of the diversity of life requires other things such as descent with modification, the existence of diverse habitats and so on. But other theories already accept these elements, so they don't bear repeating. It's like explaining Conservapedia: one could go into fantastic detail about the software that supports it or one could say "it's like Wikipedia but seeks to be Conservative".

9.WHY ARE THE (EXPECTED) COUNTLESS MILLIONS OF TRANSITIONAL FOSSILS MISSING Countless millions of transitional fossils are not expected. Therefore they are not missing.

10. HOW DO ‘LIVING FOSSILS’ REMAIN UNCHANGED OVER SUPPOSED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF YEARS, IF EVOLUTION HAS CHANGED WORMS INTO HUMANS IN THE SAME TIME FRAME?

They don’t. Modern coelacanths are different from ancient coelacanths. Those resemblances in “form” that persist match the resemblance in environment. Exactly what would be expected.

11. HOW DID BLIND CHEMISTRY CREATE MIND/ INTELLIGENCE, MEANING, ALTRUISM AND MORALITY? There are a number of things here. We do not know how “mind” arises from blind chemistry, we merely know that is does. Every existing human mind began as a bundle of chemicals, now there is a mind. “Meaning”. The meaning of a statement is its method of falsification. Meaning will, therefore, arise if an entity is so configured as to treat a statement as false if the world is configured in a certain way. “Altruism” is pathetically easy: being nice to people has evolutionary advantages. “Morality” is absolute and non-contingent. It cannot be created. To be created relativises whatever is created to the creator.

14. SCIENCE INVOLVES EXPERIMENTING TO FIGURE OUT HOW THINGS WORK; HOW THEY OPERATE. WHY IS EVOLUTION, A THEORY ABOUT HISTORY, TAUGHT AS IF IT IS THE SAME AS THIS OPERATIONAL SCIENCE

Evolution is a historical science and taught as such. It is not taught "as if it is the same as this operational science".

15. WHY IS A FUNDAMENTALLY RELIGIOUS IDEA, A DOGMATIC BELIEF SYSTEM THAT FAILS TO EXPLAIN THE EVIDENCE, TAUGHT IN SCIENCE CLASSES? Because some school boards and individual teachers have an irrational attachment to dogmatic belief systems such as creationism and intelligent design.