09.27.05
Darwin’s theory testable???
The first day of the Dover trail summoned Dr. Kenneth Miller as an expert witness.
The ACLU’s first expert witness, Dr. Kenneth Miller, testified that the scientific theory of intelligent design is untestable
True, but Darwin’s theory of natural selection is only marginally testable itself. Darwinists constantly indulge in ‘bait and switch’ tactics, the ‘dishes of bacteria’ syndrome, whereby easy cases of microevolution are made into the proof for all cases.
To test natural selection in key cases would be a tremendous task:
See my The Hurricane Argument
Darwinists have neutralized Popper, but his original insight about the metaphysical character of evolutionary theory ought to be brought back out of mothballs, minus the type of sophistical fire extenguisher foam it gets in most scientific citations.
So the question of the science of evolution is tabled next to that of intelligent design.
Dr. Miller’s testimony is disturbing because it demands that the Court rule on the nature of science and the validity of scientific theories — matters which should be left to scientific experts and not be decided by courts
Leaving it to lawyers could be a problem, but leaving it to scientists at this point is surely worse. Darwinists have so confused themselves and others that scientists don’t know what they are talking about anymore, at least on evolution.
Grim realization: Modern society has no institute, organization or body that can pass proper judgment on the issue of what constitutes science.
Along with testability, we often hear the Popper criterion of falsifiability. But few of these scientists are Popperians at all, Popper’s methodology being brilliantly original but many times challenged, and certainly not that of mainstream science. The irony is that Popper is ambiguously caught up in the postmodern and other challenges to standard science.
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ — The case of Kitzmiller v. Dover
Area School District opened in federal court yesterday
[snip]
The ACLU is suing the school board of Dover, Pennsylvania for
adopting a policy that requires students to listen to a three-paragraph statement about the theory of intelligent design. The ACLU’s first expert witness, Dr. Kenneth Miller, testified that the scientific theory of intelligent design is untestable and therefore unscientific. Later he contradicted himself by proceeding to discuss how he has made various arguments in scientific forums testing design theory. Most of Dr. Miller’s testimony today against intelligent design was simply based upon a misrepresentation of the scientific theory of intelligent design," said scientist Casey Luskin, program officer for public policy and legal affairs with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture.
"Dr. Miller’s testimony is disturbing because it demands that the Court rule on the nature of science and the validity of scientific theories — matters which should be left to scientific experts and not be decided by courts," added Luskin. Miller also blatantly mischaracterized intelligent design theory as an argument for a ;supernatural agent
prnewswire.com