# Has any creationist conducted experiments to debunk evolution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311 "2006-06-11T16:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/21 "2006-06-12T14:43:39Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] What evidence would, in principle, falsify creationism – either young-Earth creationism [/quote] Young-Earth creationism is easily falsified by virtually all of the geological record - which gives every evidence of having developed over billions of years - as well as astronomy and other lines of evidence. Of course, one cannot falsify the proposition that the universe was created to _look_ old. > [@](#): > > or “intelligent design” theory? Intelligent design is not in principle falsifiable, thus irrelevant from the viewpoint of science. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/22 "2006-06-12T14:45:16Z")
Respectfully, I think that the OP has missed the Creationist’s point. Experiments are not required. All that is required is faith. You must buy the inerrency of the Bible. It is the complete and true Word of God and all in it is true in every sense. However, it cannot be proven. Proof is the antithesis of faith. After all, one cannot prove that God exists at all. It is faith that is required. Attempts to prove the Genesis creation stories will always fail because they are not provable. Therefore, no experiments need to be conducted. Of course, much of this is hogwash. To tread into GD, I believe that God is Truth. He does not lie to us. Humans, however, make mistakes. Genesis was reported by humans not present at the events described. God related the events of Creation in a way that they could understand. They got some of it wrong. I say “they” because Genesis offers two incompatible stories. That implies that more than one person is telling the story. They got some of the details wrong, or jumbled up. Big deal. But God doesn’t lie to us. Around us is this incredible Creation. He has given us the wisdom to explore it in every way. All of Creation is Truth. We have only a limited understanding of this truth and sometimes we make mistakes. For example, the Earth is not the center of the universe. As evidence came to light that it wasn’t, our understanding of Truth improved. Evolution is much the same way. That evolution happens is not in question. Darwin’s theory of natural selection is the most likely explanation of its mechanism. As we learn more, God’s Truth is revealed to us. For me, this does not lessen faith. In my view, it only deepens it. Or, the entire world could be riding on the back of the Great Turtle. Whatever. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/23 "2006-06-12T15:22:10Z")
[QUOTE=Drum God] Respectfully, I think that the OP has missed the Creationist’s point. Experiments are not required. All that is required is faith. You must buy the inerrency of the Bible. [/QUOTE] That’s true of young-Earth creationism. ID theory, OTOH, in principle has no connection at all to the Bible or any other religious revelation or tradition. IOW, if ID were proven true, that still would not prove any particular element of Christian doctrine, such as original sin. The “intelligent designer” might or might not have anything to do with the being who supposedly spoke to Abraham and Moses. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/24 "2006-06-12T15:34:39Z")
**633Squadron** > [@](#): > > I’m not saying that science is better than or worse than non-science, just different. Maybe so, but it would be a heck of a lot tougher to make your SDMB postings on a _non-science_ computer wouldn’t it? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/25 "2006-06-12T17:17:38Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] **633Squadron** Maybe so, but it would be a heck of a lot tougher to make your SDMB postings on a _non-science_ computer wouldn’t it? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Never confuse science with technology. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/26 "2006-06-12T17:54:34Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] There are three different sorts of experiments which could do the trick: First, an experimenter could in principle determine experimentally that the offspring of an organism are, on average, no more like the parent organism than any other organism is. Second, an experimenter could in principle determine experimentally that all organisms are exactly identical to their parents. Third, an experimenter could in principle determine that all organisms have the same number of decendants capable of reproducing after some number of generations. In fact, there is a very large body of experimental evidence on these three points, apparent to everyone. And all of the experimental evidence seems to favor evolution. Once you accept the experimental observations that organisms vary, that offspring take after their parents, and that some organisms are more successful than others in reproducing, the Theory of Evolution follows logically. [/QUOTE] Actually, there’s one very important facet of evolution that also must be true – speciation; that one particular individual’s descendants might not all be of the same species. Old Earth creationists are more than willing to accept that the genetic makeup of a given species changes over time, but believe that all species now in existance have always been in existance since the time that God made the world. Of course, speciation _has_ been [observed](http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html). ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/27 "2006-06-12T18:00:19Z")
Finding the bones of a whale in pre-Cambrian strata would be close enough to falsifying evolution for me. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/28 "2006-06-12T18:51:11Z")
[QUOTE=633squadron] I think we have two competing theories. [/QUOTE] I would disagree. Evolution is a theory, creationism is a faith-based hypothesis. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/29 "2006-06-12T20:25:21Z")
I think **Chronos** has it right. Plenty of creationists have conduccted experiments to debunk evolution. Most of them, in all probability. The problem is the experiments have not produced the results they hoped for. There’s a whole lot of ‘damn, more 6 billion year old rocks’ going on out there. The outstanding fact is that when these experiments are conducted in a due scientific manner, they don’t debunk evolution. As to ID, I recall that in fact it is falsifiable to an extent. I believe Richard Dawkins has made the point that mitochrondial DNA contains a ‘record’ and that record shows randomness and digression in any organism, which is inconconsistent with the notion of design. I may be wrong in detail here, but the general picture is I believe correct. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311/30 "2006-06-12T20:32:38Z")
I suppose they could convince God to create another universe identical to this one, of course that wouldn’t prove that this one didn’t come about by evolution… It also wouldn’t mean that the 2nd universe hadn’t been there the whole time, but it would be something. 🙂 And according to the creationists it should only take 6 days to complete. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-creationist-conducted-experiments-to-debunk-evolution/360311.md?page=1)