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Why do the theories of creation and evolution have to be mutually exclusive

by Jonathan Ellington

Created on: November 07, 2010

Using creation theory within evolutionary theory would be a backward step for researchers. It should remain separate from evolutionary theory for two reasons. First, it is harmful for continued advancement within science as a discipline, due to lack of testability. Secondarily, allowing creation theory to permeate evolutionary theory is ethically inappropriate, because science is a public operation.

To begin, scientists are required to use the falsification process when adopting theories. Loosely, falsification is the process of testing (for falseness or truth) in knowledge sets that scientists use within application of the scientific method. The process of falsification ensures that the concepts and data used by scientists can actually be tested. When scientists are unable to validate knowledge sets (hypotheses, theories, etc) through testing, they cannot learn anything new about their subjects of interest. By insuring that only subject matter within the realm of scientific testability is chosen for examination, scientists avoid searching for answers to questions that are outside the grasp of scientific empiricism.

When knowledge cannot be tested, its validity towards truth or falseness cannot be established by scientific means. Creationism is one such theory because it is an appeal to irreducible complexity. Appeals to irreducible complexity are generally viewed in science as dead ends within the search for knowledge. They are therefore not pursued as reasonable avenues for valid applications of science.

If evolutionary scientists were to adopt the cosmological view of creationists, it would halt scientific advancement because it presupposes that a god or some other intelligent entity created the universe. This assumption closes the door on scientific exploration, because an assumption of this nature removes the ability for testing to any further degree. Within creationist theory, the need for further exploration isn’t needed, because all the final answers are already given through appeals to God (or some other irreducible entity).

A rebuttal to the first objection is that creationist theory would not stop progression in evolutionary science, because it would be okay to use the notion of an intelligent creator as a starting point in scientific studies. Let it be imagined momentarily that this were the case. Because it is a known fact that there are disputes between creationists on how the universe was created, it seems like it would be a little too

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