Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Whose ignorance?

Clayton Cramer is pointing out some ignorance.

Instapundit Demonstrating His Ignorance Again Instapundit seems to think that the spherical nature and existence of other planets is proven to about the same level as evolution.

It is.

One involves inference from an incomplete fossil record; the other involves measurement. Now, you may want to argue that evolution is adequately proven, but to claim that the evidence is comparable to that for the sphericity of planets is simply ignorance.

The existence of evolution is at least as well established as the existence of George Washington. No one questions the existence of George Washington, even though historical records are incomplete.

People have been executed on evidence flimsier than the evidence that supports evolution. No one qustions the guilt of, for example, Timothy McVeigh, even though the examination of the evidence is necessarily incomplete.

As for the measurement and existence of the other planets, all you have is inferential evidence. You've never traveled to any of the other planets and laid hands on one. You've never measured one with your own instruments. You rely on people who build instruments and make measurements from a great distance, and accept that the signals from these instruments mean what the experts say they do.

The fact is, there is no evidence that will convince you. That's why you keep backtracking from "evolutionary theory may well be the best way to explain phenomena no one doubts but I just wish they weren't so arrogant about it" to "evolution is unproven."

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