the scientist, both dates are correct but with larger-than-hoped-for error bars. An extreme example of this sort is the date for the Earth's origin.
4. Relevance: the appropriateness of an argument for the question being asked.
5. Moot: no longer relevant. For example, the question “Did any dinosaurs survive their great extinction at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago?” would become moot if a fossil dinosaur were to be found that dates to more recently than 65 M.Y.A.
6. Implication: a proper conclusion, given acceptance of the prior assertions (the premises). Whenever it is impossible for A to be true without B also being true, it is said that A strictly implies B. Although the word entails is sometimes used as a synonym for implies, some logicians (notably Alan Ross Anderson and Nuel D. Belnap) have argued that for A to entail B, not only must it be impossible for A to be true without B being true, but there must be some relevance between the truth of A and the truth of B. For example, a contradiction implies the truth of any proposition whatsoever: “Wolves eat meat and wolves do not eat meat” logically implies “The Earth was created six thousand years ago”; yet it entails only those propositions that are relevant (e.g., “Wolves eat sheep”).
7. Invalid: not having the proper structure of a syllogistic argument. When the conclusion does not follow from the premises, the syllogism is said to be invalid. Even if the conclusion is true, and even if it is an observable fact, if the structure is not proper, the logic is invalid. It is possible to have a true conclusion in an invalid syllogism. The conclusion may be true, but since it does not follow from the premises, the syllogism is invalid.
CHAPTER TWO
The Basics
What is “basic” to the understanding of creationism and evolution? This chapter discusses some of the categories of knowledge and belief, and examines areas of knowledge and information.
A. HOW DO I KNOW ANYTHING?
I suggest seven ways of knowing, not all of which are equally dependable. Examining these ways can be critical in deciding the logic or correctness of a conclusion.
1. Experience is intended to cover the effects of a lifetime of living in the world and learning that if we're hungry and cry, mother will give us milk; if we stand in the rain, we're likely to get wet. Every time we throw our toy out of the crib, it falls on the floor and we begin to learn about gravity and balance. Through the use of induction (reasoning from specific facts to general rules), we begin to formulate laws that seem to us to govern events in our world. Our experiences are formed through our perceptual senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. Unfortunately, our perceptions are fallible. The philosopher René Descartes argued that our observations may be due to a dream, a deceiving God, or a deceiving daemon. Philosophers belonging to the branch of philosophy known as skepticism point out that we cannot be sure that we are not a disembodied “brain in a vat” and that all our observations are merely illusions being fed to us. (Think of the movie The Matrix). Various justifications have been proposed for thinking that our experiences are reliable. One answer to the problem is the formation of a suitable track record of memories that makes it reasonable to attribute reliability to our perceptions and gives us some hope that our observations correspond to reality!
2. Observation is like experience but more structured. You perform experiments with proper controls. You time how long it takes to get to work by different routes and then use the one that gets you to work the quickest—unless, of course, you dislike work. You alter the spices in a recipe to see if the resulting pancakes taste better or worse. Scientists continually use this method to learn about the material world, and for them it is the definitive way of knowing that some belief (knowledge) is correct. There is no higher authority to which a scientist can appeal. It is the most important source of information for scientists, because it is verifiable by additional and repeated observations. One does need to be careful, though, because things are not always what they superficially seem. Moreover, as someone once said, “If I hadn't believed it, I wouldn't have seen it.” This important humorous saying indicates that it is possible to be led astray by believing something so strongly that you are led to see things that are not there, or to fail to see things that are.
3. Logic is the mathematical subject that assures that the reasoning process is valid, with erroneous reasoning revealed as such. But logic doesn't prove anything even if the logic is valid, because the correctness of the conclusion still depends upon the correctness of the assumptions. All knowledge can be put through the tests of logic, logic having nothing to do with the philosophy one may be examining. It can test for logical (in)consistency. Thus both creationism and science (and other systems of belief) strive to make their knowledge system as logical, as internally consistent, as possible. It is the second most important way of knowing for the scientist, but logically it is important for the creationist as well.
4. Authority is learning from the learned, the most bountiful source of knowledge that we have. We learn first from our parents, then from teachers and playmates, and then from employers. We also learn from books, newspapers, magazines, television, and games. Not all authorities are equally good, and a good authority in one field may be limited in another field. If you have a theological question, you'll probably do better to ask a rabbi (priest, imam, etc.) than a scientist. But if you have a scientific question, the scientist is probably a better choice than the rabbi (or priest or imam). And even in their own fields scientists are not all equally knowledgeable. As the Romans put it: caveat emptor—let the buyer beware.
For the literal creationist, on matters of evolution there is no higher authority to which one can appeal than the first two chapters of Genesis, literally interpreted. On this the creationists insist. It should come as no surprise, then, that, as things now stand, the differences between evolutionists and the strict creationists are irresolvable. They could be resolvable only if one of the two groups changed their criteria for truth to that of the other, or if they separated the areas addressed between them. Specifically, the evolutionists would agree that they have no authority in the realm of the theological, and the creationists would agree they have no authority in the realm of the material world. One should recognize that authority comes in different flavors. It is important that one recognize the difference between an authority that talks a lot about what is true, and one that presents experimental evidence in favor of a proposition being true (or not).
5. Intuition is the sudden appearance of an idea that feels correct to you although you can't say why or how it came into your head. It is a frequent source of knowledge, although its probability of being correct may be very low. “I don't know whether this organism (Archaeopteryx) is a bird or a mammal, but I feel that it is a bird.” Scientists frequently have these feelings, and those who have the best intuition tend to be the more successful scientists. Intuition tends to be most valuable when it is about a topic of which the one doing the intuiting has much experience. Note how weak the prediction is. Intuition is of little value in an intellectual argument, but it may be of great value in suggesting a fruitful line of research.
6. Revelation is God speaking to you, telling you what to believe or do, or what is true. For scientists it is their experiments or observations that are revealing, rather than God. The scientist's attitude is often one of “If God tells you something, that is revelation. When you tell me what God said, that is hearsay.”
7. Faith is the knowing of something for which none of the above applies: “There is no logical reason why I believe this, but I am certain that it is true.” The philosopher S
