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Page 4

WHY EVOLUTION IS PSEUDOSCIENCE

Two professors of biology made the following comment in 1967 concerning Popper's philosophy, as applied to the theory of evolution :

"Our theory of evolution has become, as Popper described, one which cannot be refuted by any possible observations. Every conceivable observation can be fitted into it. It is thus outside of 'empirical science' but not necessarily false. No one can think of ways to test it. Ideas, either without basis or based upon a few laboratory experiments carried out in extremely simplified systems, have attained currency far beyond their validity. They have become part of an evolutionary dogma accepted by most of us as part of our training." 9

Although philosophically attracted to Darwinism, Popper (obviously following his own arguments) admitted in his autobiography, which was first published in 1974 (his emphasis), that

"I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme - a possible framework for testable scientific theories." 10

Referring to Popper's statements and to the fact that it is only possible to test an hypothesis where there are repeatable observations, Dr. Colin Patterson, a leading paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, wrote in 1978:

"If we accept Popper's distinction between science and non-science we must ask ourselves whether the theory of evolution by natural selection is scientific or metaphysical (pseudoscience). Taking the first part of the theory, that evolution has occurred, it says that the history of life is a single process of species splitting and progression. This process must be unique and unrepeatable, like the history of England. This part of the theory is, therefore, a historical theory about unique events, and unique events are, by definition , not part of science, for they are unrepeatable and so not subject to test." 11

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9 Nature (vol. 214: 22 April 1967), p. 352.
10 K.Popper, Unended Quest (La Sale and London: Open Court Publishing Company, 1982 edition).
11 Colin Patterson, British Museum of Natural History (1978), pp. 145-146.