Darwinism Benefits Scientific Method?

[IceAgeCivilizations]

It has been said that to not treat Darwinian evolution as writ would lead to a retardation of scientific progress because many new discoveries are supposedly predicated upon Darwinian theory.

I challenged some chatters at the New York Times message board to say what scientific discoveries were derived from Darwinian theory, and all they could come up with is "traffic flow solutions" and "airplane wing designs," so obviously, Darwinian theory really has no impact on scientific progress, and in fact, actually impedes it has people are preoccupied with that nonsensical notion which has no bearing on how the world works.

 

[spidergoat]

The existence of a genetic code was predicted by Darwin (and the Augustinian priest Gregor Mendel), although he could not know the actual form. This led to the discovery of DNA, and the mapping of the human genome.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Nothing to do with Darwinian evolution, just predicting genetic characteristics on a micro scale was not unique to Darwinists.

 

[spidergoat]

The idea that complexity can emerge without a complex cause is an important idea in science.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Yeh, but that's humans adding complexity, big difference.

 

[spidergoat]

Over your head as usual.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Nice "rebuttal."

 

[spidergoat]

I was not referring to complexity created by humans.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Then who created the complexity?

Do amoebas actually morph into elephants?

 

[spidergoat]

The word "who" implies a necessarily complex entity, which is the opposite of the principle I was suggesting- the preservation of complexity as an impersonal passive process.

 

[Zephyr]

Complexity follows some interesting rules. Try reading up information theory.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

You weren't talking about the preservation of complexity, you were talking about added complexity.

 

[spidergoat]

The only thing necessary for complexity to accumulate is for a slightly more complex variation on a theme to be preserved in an iterative process.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Where does it supposedly say that information theory is derived from Darwinian theory?

 

[Zephyr]

Where does it supposedly say that information theory is derived from Darwinian theory?

It doesn't, but information theory is sometimes misunderstood by creationists.

 

[spidergoat]

The study of emerging bacterial and viral resistance to treatment is predicated on an understanding of evolution.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Not upon Darwinian evolution, a bacteria is still just that, and a virus is still just that.

 

[spidergoat]

A bacteria is a bacteria, but how to they adapt and become resistant to anti-bacterial agents? They aren't that smart.

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Nothing to do with Darwinism, so we're still stuck on "traffic flow solutions" and "airplane wing designs."

 

[spidergoat]

The adaptibility of bacteria depends on the principle of evolution, ie. variation and natural selection. Most modern discoveries in biology depend on an understanding of evolution. I think what those guys were referring to were evolutionary algorithms.