Evolutionary Thought in Action: The Subtlety of Metaphysics

In my previous post I gave a typical example of evolutionary thinking and asked readers to identify the usual metaphysics that is interwoven. Here is the example:

Do I need to recount for you the instances of observed evolution, past and present? You already have rejected short-term examples of the phenomenon, but when the exact same pseudogene for Vitamin C is broken in the exact same place in humans and chimpanzees, indicating we inherited it from a common ancestor, what else do you say it is other than a fact that we evolved from that common ancestor? If you have read the authors you claim to have, how many more examples of evolution in action do you want? You say that it's "immediately obvious from the evolution genre...that while evolutionists consistently make this claim, it is nowhere demonstrated." It baffles me how you can make that statement. How gilded do you insist the lily be?

There is something fascinating about powerful lies that animate proponents into self-righteous indignation, and befuddle opponents. Proponents of evolution are absolutely sure they are right, that evolution is squarely scientific, and that skepticism must be the result of religious motives. The certainty of evolution is matched only by its hypocrisy.

Like a virus the lie makes its way into one's thinking and then hijacks the thinking process for reproduction and further dissemination. Today's evolutionists not only have the lie firmly embedded in their thinking, they constantly communicate the lie with tremendous assurance and authority.

But unlike most lies, this one deals with a downright bizarre notion. Evolution convinces us of the absurd, making it a great lie. I may convince you I am a straight A student though I actually have a few B grades. That would be a small, unimpressive lie. But what if I actually have received no grades at all? What if I have never attended a single class, turned in any homework, or taken any tests? Then my lie would be much more significant. And imagine that I have so convinced you that you vociferously attack any and all who would doubt my perfections? Then my lie is yielding its fruit--it is truly powerful.

Evolutionists insist that all of biology just happened to arise by itself. Indeed, they insist this is an obvious, undeniable fact that is beyond any shadow of a doubt. In fact, say evolutionists, this is so obvious that those who will not go along must be marginalized and attacked.

This lie gives assurance and self-righteousness. And so evolutionists blackball opponents and bar skepticism from important venues while planting their lies into public policy, the media, the law, the education system, and who knows where else. In the past century this meme has gone viral and now dominates global thinking. Hans Christian Andersen could not have dreamed of anything more.

Pseudogenes and metaphysics

In the above example, the crucial metaphysics is woven in here:

but when the exact same pseudogene for Vitamin C is broken in the exact same place in humans and chimpanzees, indicating we inherited it from a common ancestor, what else do you say it is other than a fact that we evolved from that common ancestor?

This shared-error argument is a good example of how the evolution lie depends on subtle misrepresentations of the science and unspoken metaphysical claims. Any scientific analysis of the evidence would come up empty handed. Pseudogenes reveal various patterns, some which can be employed to argue for common descent, others which violate common descent (they could be explained, for instance, by common mechanism). Furthermore pseudogenes reveal evidence of mutational hotspots.

But such quandaries are left unmentioned. Evolutionists selectively present the evidence to make evolution appear to be well supported. The evolution lie corrupts scientific knowledge.

Such scientific problems are inconsequential for evolution though, because evolution has metaphysical certainty. In this case, the claim is that shared errors are powerful and compelling proofs of evolution. The subtlety here is not in the evidence itself but in how it is transformed from a successful prediction to a proof text.

This claim, that such shared errors indicate, or demonstrate, or reveal common ancestry, is the result of an implicit truth claim which does not, and cannot, come from science. It is the claim that evolution and only evolution can explain such evidences. It is the equivalent of what is known as an IF-AND-ONLY-IF claim.

Science makes IF-THEN statements (if evolution is true, then species with recent common ancestors should have similarities between them). IF-AND-ONLY-IF statements (if and only if evolution is true, then species with recent common ancestors should have similarities between them) cannot be known from science.

Such statements are truth claims that are at the foundation of evolutionary thought. The evolutionist chastises skeptics for somehow attacking science, while at the same time making metaphysical pronouncements in the name of science. The evolutionist should look in a mirror.