Jun 27 2009
Stasis is Not Science
While religious beliefs tend to typify stasis and maintain a cognitive status quo, science is truly revolutionary. It survives challenge and thrives because of it. This progress comes at a cost: energy and a willingness to put ideas on the chopping block of test and debate.
Thanks to science, our understanding of the universe has changed, is changing and will change. But not as one would change clothes. Science is not as arbitrary and whimsical as post-modernists claim. Today’s science grows out of yesterday’s. Even where there is a dramatic paradigm-shift, this shift comes thanks to the methods of science and to the recently outdated model which most likely served as a stepping stone to the new model.
Reflecting this theme, researchers from Oregon State University have made a discovery that is causing “New Doubts About Dinosaur-bird Links.” Birds may not be as closely related to ancient carnivorous dinosaurs as previously thought.
According to zoology professor John Ruben,
This discovery probably means that birds evolved on a parallel path alongside dinosaurs, starting that process before most dinosaur species even existed.
Cool. This could be a semi-major breakthrough in our understanding of evolution. Bird evolution. Providing the idea proves to have merit, it will be welcome. But first must come the tests and debate.
