Saturday, February 9, 2008

Facts are Meaningless

The following link is a news article describing how blue eyes are a result of a mutational gene which turned off a gene which causes human eyes to be brown. The article states that at one time all humans had brown eyes.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327070,00.html

The article reeks of evolutionary interpretations.

However, the article can be interpreted in two ways. And I believe this second interpretation makes much more sense.

I once heard a story about how a podiatrist had told a creationist that he believed he was seeing the proof of evolution in his patients. He told the creationist that over the many years of his practice, he was noticing one of the toes (I presume the little tow, but I don't rememember for sure) of people get smaller over time. He believed this was evolution and that eventually humans would lose that toe.

The creationist objected, saying if losing a toe is evolution, we're all in trouble. Show me a toe that is being added to a foot, and then you might have a point!

The same can be said for a mutation that turns OFF a gene. That's a LOSS of information, not a gain. Because of the LOSS of information, the Koala bear is going extinct. It is more susceptible to disease because it no longer carries sufficient amounts of recessive genes to its offspring to give some of them the viability to adapt.

Without going deeper into the subject of origins, let me just point out that evolution can only point to instances where genetic information is being lost, not gained. If this were not true, we'd all stick our heads in microwaves hoping for a mutation to expedite the evolutionary process!

Facts by themselves are meaningless. They have to be interpreted. The interpretation process usually (perhaps always) leaves us with a fork in the road. That fork allows us for at least two plausible options.

"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Dan Castellaneta

Do you see how our will (volition) comes in to play as we set about to discern truth?
Of course, some people don't even want to believe in truth itself:

The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.
- Jane Wagner

Who we are is a prerequisite in in determining what we can possibly know.

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