WHY THE LONG FACE, ROTTWEILER?:

Evolution All Around: THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins (NICHOLAS WADE, 10/10/09, NY Times Book Review)

Dawkins is aware that evolution is commonly called a theory but deems “theory” too wishy-washy a term because it connotes the idea of hypothesis. Evolution, in Dawkins’s view, is a concept as bulletproof as a mathematical theorem, even though it can’t be proved by rigorous logical proofs. He seems to have little appreciation for the cognitive structure of science. Philosophers of science, who are the arbiters of such issues, say science consists largely of facts, laws and theories. The facts are the facts, the laws summarize the regularities in the facts, and the theories explain the laws. Evolution can fall into only one of these categories, and it’s a theory.

Other systems of thought, like religion, are founded on immutable dogma, whereas science changes to accommodate new knowledge. So what part of science is it that changes during intellectual revolutions? Not the facts, one hopes, or the laws. It’s the highest-level elements in the cognitive structure — the theories — that are sacrificed when fundamental change is needed.

Which is why the Darwinists have become so deranged in recent years. The paradigm always shifts and the one invented by a guilt-ridden Victorian to justify the dominance of his ethnic cohort over every other has long since outlived its usefulness. The true believers can feel the paradigm shifting right out from under them--as witness the burgeoning rejection of the theory in even Darwin's and Dawkins's own England-- and they are, understandably, filled with dread.

Even Dawkins himself drifts into Designism (not to mention self-contradictory incoherence) when he tries explaining his dogma:

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 10, 2009 7:18 AM