May 06 2009
Evolution and The Patience of Science
No, science does not have all the answers. Not yet, anyway. Yes, there is a possibility that some questions will never be answered. But as a person who tries to stay abreast of scientific progress, let me just say — Wow! I am almost daily impressed.
Which helps to counter any depressed feeling I may have over such things as polls of Americans showing that somewhere around one half do not accept the theory of evolution.
I am furthermore consoled by the thought that the accumulating data will absolutely bury those but the most intoxicated of addicts to an Ol’ Time religion. (Oops, got a bit fast and loose with my language there.)
For instance, add this finding to the heap: Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have created “an artificial ecosystem inside a test tube where molecules evolve to exploit distinct ecological niches, similar to the finches that Charles Darwin famously described in “The Origin of Species” 150 years ago.”
While I’m unsure that the world “evolving” is the proper one to describe what the molecules are doing, still…wow.
I don’t think it is far-fetched to believe that some day life might be generated in a lab. And then the pressing sociocultural question may be “how do we raise children so they do not grow up to deny reality.” For data and scientific explanations alone will never be enough. A mind has to be receptive to these for them to matter.
