At the end of my first-year lecture on evolutionary theory, I said that I didn’t believe<\/i> in the theory of evolution – I accepted<\/i> it as the best possible current explanation for for the enormous body of information we have about life’s diversity & relationships. One of my students was quite puzzled by this (at least, I hope it’s just one!) – how, they said, could I stand up there & teach them something I didn’t believe in?<\/p>\n
This caused me to wonder about my teaching – perhaps I hadn’t explained myself as clearly as I might have done… But it also highlights the difference between science & what we might call ‘other ways of knowing’ about the world. Science simply isn’t a matter of blind faith (belief) – it’s evidence-based. And the data scientists gain is assessed for accuracy & relevance. If the weight of the evidence suggests that a re-think is necessary, then that’s what will happen. Nor are scientific theories cast in concrete – they are always subject to change if the evidence warrants this. And in fact they’re constantly undergoing rather rigorous testing – after all, if someone could conclusively demonstrate that the theory of evolution was not<\/i> an accurate explanation, then that someone would be in line for a Nobel prize.<\/p>\n
So that’s why I don’t ‘believe’ in evolution \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the end of my first-year lecture on evolutionary theory, I said that I didn’t believe in the theory of evolution – I accepted it as the best possible current explanation for for the enormous body of information we have about life’s diversity & relationships. One of my students was quite puzzled by this (at least, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5,15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n