Science Forums 2

[HydrogenBond]

I believe in evolution but the proof of the theory has conceptual problems. This does not discount the theory but makes it a theory and not proof. Let me explain this subtle problem.

The data we collect for evolution is discontinuous data. Many of the early life forms appeared so long ago there is no practical way to get every data point. Here is the analogy. Say you had a child. At the day they were born and every day until they reached 18 years old you made an entry in a journal. That would be the entire data set. What we have is analogous to asking someone to randomly pick maybe 500 out of the 7000+ pages and using only that data, explain why the child is like he is at 18 years old.

Obviously the child progressed or evolved, but if certain critical pages are missing in the analysis, the conclusions could be out of touch with reality. For example, say at 13 years and 200 days, he was in a car wreck with his mother. This one event could alter his path for many years. If it was not included in the data sampling, one may assume it is genetic.

All theories with initial limited data appear like they correlate. But as soon as more data appears, the theories are usually revived. But with evolution, it is sort of carved into stone, like religion, even with most of the data is not there. It is good to teach it, but honesty would have a data addendum. It could go something like this "Based on the data available evolution is the best theory that fits all this data. However, since we have about 2% of the data, this theory may be subject to revision as new data appears".

If you look at it logically, the most likely data will reflect the most plentiful life forms. If there are a million units of one type it is a million times more likely we will find fossils of this unit, than if there was only one. So what the data is, are big bulk items, which seen to appear discontinuous. If we had ten times as much data, then species with only 100,000 units would also be more likely to be found. Are these small perturbations or mutant leaps? The answer to that question affects the fundamentals of evolution. Without this extra data, it is easy to assume only one of the answers.