How to Convince Someone Evolution is True | Reddit

He permitted her to persist with the illusion that evolution and creation are competing hypotheses, when in fact they are entirely independent concepts that have nothing to do with one another.

She needs to understand why creation doesn’t belong in a science classroom. The fact that she thinks it does displays a fundamental misunderstanding on her part (and on the part of many of his students most likely) of what science is and what it is not. Based on the actions of his daughter, I’d wager that he let his emotions get in the way of actually effectively conveying ideas.

“We’re not going to have an evolution versus creation debate in this classroom, but it’s going to take me a few minutes to help you guys understand why.

Can anyone tell me what science is?”

(Long wait. Sometimes you have to make them look it up in the dictionary. Most definitions come round to, ‘A way of learning about nature.’)

“Right, it’s a way of learning about nature. By definition, any concept of a god involves the supernatural – that which is outside of nature. So by definition, it’s outside the scope of the topic. We can’t measure divinity. We can’t test divinity. We can’t falsify a hypothesis about divinely inspired creation. We don’t spend a lot of time on world history or diagramming sentences in a biology classroom, and we’re not going to spend a lot of time on creationism either -because it’s not science.

Science is not concerned with what you believe.

It is concerned with what you know – the best model we can construct from the evidence available in the natural world.

Science doesn’t deal with the metaphysical. Some of you will view that as a limitation, and that’s fine. You have to understand the appropriate uses and limitations of any tool you work with.”

A great point about how to have conversations about science.