Monday, November 15, 2010

Darwinism & Unidentified DNA

In the last lecture, we discussed what scientific theory and scientific fact are respectively. Clearly, Darwinism is not a fact since many people have already proved that Darwin was wrong in many aspects. Then, is Darwinism a scientific theory? Basically, the central idea of Darwinism is about the evolution of species based on natural selection. However, the current biological scientific technology still cannot properly explain genes or DNAs. For instance, over 98% of DNA has largely unknown function, and the scientist call them “Junk DNAs” (Suurkula). Why are the unidentified DNAs called “Junk DNAs”? Is it because scientists cannot use science to identify them? Maybe one day in the future, scientists will provide a proper answer (a scientific fact) for us to understand our genomes, and at that time Darwinism can become a kind of scientific theory. Thus, to some degree, Darwinism is now just a scientific hypothesis, or even has nothing to do with science.

http://www.psrast.org/junkdna.htm

2 comments:

  1. It is very important to differentiate between scientific fact and theory - as you stated. And in regards to Darwinism this concept becomes highlighted. Many people accept Darwinism as fact - so much so, that it is part of public school curriculum. Furthermore, in my university career, I cannot count the amount of times that professors have dogmatically thrown in references to Darwin within lectures, handouts, and even personal conversations. What needs to be remembered and put forward is that while it is most popularly accepted, it is not proven 100% factual. There are a lot of loopholes in Darwin's argument and in Darwinism as it has come to be developed today. While there is no problem with learning and developing Darwinist theory per se, it still must not be taught and accepted as though it were completely factual and unarguable.

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  2. There is also the marvelous flipside to this issue, such that we have seen the fight for and inclusion of Intelligent Design in the education of youth (thankfully this is primarily an American, not a Canadian issue) despite the lack of any empirical evidence supporting the theory. Remember that despite Darwinist's full-on running away with Natural Selection as the be-all to-end-all Societal arguments, at its core when referring to the origin of species Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is a Scientific theory in the sense that it is supported by more Facts, more evidence than Any Other theory in science. Unlike theories of gravity, relativity etc it has not been usurped, only synthesised with modern methods.

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