النص (en)

Evolution is the backbone of modern biology. You cannot understand the nature of the biological world without understanding evolution. I maintain that evolution is a fact, not a theory. Science uses the word theory in a way that's different from how it's used in everyday life. In everyday life, people say, oh, that's just a theory, meaning you invented it while putting on your slippers as you got out of the bed this morning. But in science, a theory is a very well-supported body of knowledge. There's the atomic theory, you know, that everything is made of atoms. People don't say, oh, it's only a theory. Evolution is a theory on that level. It is very clear that evolution happened. All you have to do is look at the record in the rocks. If you have an undisturbed sedimentary column, at the top are the beasts and vegetables, the fossils of the beasts and vegetables around now. As you go deeper down, you go further back into time, as is clearly indicated by radioactive dating, and you find fossils of animals and plants you don't know. Who are those guys? They're not around now. Also, down there, how come there's no cows? How come there's no people down there? They're just dinosaurs and trilobites? It's very clear. down there many of the plants and animals around today weren around they hadn come into being yet Up here those guys those dinosaurs and trilobites they not around anymore They all become extinct Life evolves Now, that doesn't say that when I say evolution is a fact, that's not the same as saying that the mechanism of evolution is a fact. There, there is still significant debate on, for example, the extent to which natural selection explains everything, or in which cosmic disasters have changed things and so on. But I think evolution is absolutely clear cut. And of all the nations on the planet, this is about the only one in which it's a serious issue. And it's a serious issue for emotional reasons. That is, a lot of people who don't want to be considered an animal. I'm sorry. I'd be glad not to call you an animal if it offends you. But we are animals. We have evolved, and it's very important self-knowledge. And then, of course, the main reason is that there are people whose belief in the literal truth of every jot and tittle in the book of Genesis is offended by evolution. But the book of Genesis, I must say, is not literally true. It has problems. It has internal contradictions. Genesis chapter 1 contradicts Genesis chapter 2, just to start at the beginning.