유카탄 반도 운석 충돌

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Evolution on Trial...

okay, where was I?

I had paused in reading Anab Whitehouse's ebook,"Evolution On Trial" and I really hate unfinished work, so continue I must, says master yoda...

This 'fictional story' is a realistic overview of some of the actual issues that have arisen in the discussion of the scientific theory of evolution. It reads, to me at least, almost like a primer. The basic premis is that the character Robert Corrigan "has been put on trial for teaching material which is inconsistent with modern evolutionary theory. However, the defendant in this case is not a Creationist, nor is his argument an expression of what has come to be known as "Creationist Science"."

So, this isn't a debate of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design — you can watch FOX news if you need that fix... Another useful quote from the intro: "This overview is not about trying to prove the truth of this or that religious account of the origins of either human beings, in particular, or life, in general. The People Versus Wayne Robert Corrigan or Evolution on Trial is about the process of interpreting empirical evidence and subjecting that data to various methods of critical reflection. " (My emphasis.)

I left off with the defense just about to begin its cross examination of the prosecution's witness Professor Alan Yardley. Up to now we had heard a fairly standard scientific presentations of some of ideas, assumptions, and conjectures that are currently in vogue in the theories of evolution today.

Please bear with me if my music diploma leaks through and displays my utter ignorance in such matters, realize I am really just dragging you through my own quest for truth and you will get to watch me walk or fall, respectively... Hopefully not at the author's expense either, I'd like to reiterate that my little discussions here are NOT a critique of Mr. Whitehouse's work, but I like to think of it more like I am reading aloud. Whether or not the information presented is accurate I can not claim, but since I know nothing, here is a good place to start.... I'll leave it up to you to decide.

>>>CRITICAL REFLECTION<<<<>

"In your opinion, Professor, would living organisms have a better chance of surviving such a catastrophic event (large-sized meteoric impacts on Earth) than various prebiotic arrangements of complex hydrocarbons?" Mr. Tappin asked.

At this point, Mr. Mayfield jumped up and firmly stated: "Objection, your Honor. The question is highly hypothetical and speculative."

"Mr. Tappin," probed Judge Arnsberger, "do you care to respond to the objection?"

"Yes, your Honor, I do," replied the defense lawyer. "On the basis of both direct testimony, as well as on the basis of evidence forthcoming from cross-examination to this point, the nature of science has been shown to involve, among other things, the use of assumptions, hypothesis, conjecture, probability, projections, estimates, interpolations and extrapolations. Therefore, I fail to see on what plausible grounds the prosecution could object to the defense's desire to explore certain hypothetical and speculative issues concerning the origin-of-life problem from a scientific perspective."

So, what just happened here? If I understand it correctly, the nutshell is, which is more likely to survive a "catastrophic event", like a meteor hitting the earth:

Living things or "prebiotic matter"? ( prebotic: of, relating to, or being chemical or environmental precursors of the origin of life ; also : existing or occurring before the origin of life)

Why the objection? Could it be that 'the beginning of life" started and stopped a few times? Could it be that evolutionary theory is not prepared for multiple "paths" of origin? Or does this present other problems?? I am not sure...

We go on to find out that, perhaps the data isn't as definitive as it is presented on the frequency and nature of meteoric impacts on the earth, that the Yucatan crater suggests that being it is about 65 million years old and admittedly strong enough to have destroyed supporting enviroments of living things... and yet, here we are. The question remains, why did life continue?

Here is a movie of what some think may have been the extent of the wildfires created by the Yucatan Meteor:

(thank you to: NASA/UA Space Imagery Center's Impact Cratering Series.Concept and content by David A. Kring, Daniel D. Durda and Jake Bailey. Movie of impact-generated wildfires compiled by Daniel D. Durda. Design, graphics, and images by Jake Bailey, Daniel D. Durda and David A. Kring. All information and images are the property of the Space Imagery Center.)

This can give a sense of the level of devastation by just ONE such meteor... And we are not even sure of how many, AT ALL, of these meteors hit the earth.

thats is for today class, sorry I couldn't get in a joke about dangling participles..

Sufism
Evolution