Religion and Science
1. The Method of Argument
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In all such arguments, the link between supposition
and truth is one only of inference and not one of
experiment or observation. Yet, on the basis solely
of such inferential arguments, the concept of
evolution in modern times has been considered a
scientific fact. That is, to the modern mind, the
sphere of academic facts is not limited only to those
events, which are known by direct experience.
Rather what logically
follows
from experiments and
observations can be just as well accepted as
established scientific facts as those facts, which
come directly or indirectly under our observation.
This statement is, nevertheless, debatable. Sir
Arthur Keith, who is himself a staunch supporter of
organic evolution, did not regard the theory of
evolution either as an empirical or as an inferential
fact, but as a ‘basic dogma of rationalism.’
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A reputed Encyclopaedia on Science describes
Darwinism as theory based on ‘explanation without
demonstration’.
Why is it then that an unobservable, and non-
demonstrable process is accepted as a scientific fact?
A.E. Mander writes that it is because:
