Thank you for posting that information, Randi! Very timely as I was just about to post regarding what is included in your link, the common misconception that the term "theory," a scientific term, implies UNPROVEN fact and that is not the case. "Facts" are the data, theories are the "structures of ideas" that EXPLAIN and INTERPRET facts. A theory does not make a proven or believed fact any less valid! It's just a means of explaining the "fact." I just bring this up to clarify...just because evolution is discussed within the parameters of "theory," one should not infer that the validity of the concept itself is in question.

The "fact" being debated here, evolution, does not "go away" or lose validity, merely because different theories (explainations) of that fact are discussed or debated. Indeed Darwin's theory of evoluation was not the first to be put out there...it was his explaination, his theory to explain the "fact."

To quote Dr. Stephen J. Gould...

"Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome."

Ok, point being, apples don't float in air, we ALL believe that; they fall, every time But how to explain why they fall, that is the "theory." One's theory as to why they fall may be debated, the fact that they do and always will fall, FACT.

And facts are not absolute certainties either. That concept does not exist in science.

Another misconception of the current theory of evolution is that homonids, the human species to which we belong, in all it's forms, (evolutions) from austraelophythesis to homo erectus to homo sapiens, evolved from apes. That is not the case. Humans did not directly evolve from apes according to current theory. Nor did apples evolve from tomatoes The ape species and homonid species, cohabitated simultaneously and evolved separately, along the evolutionary time continuum. How does/can one dispute the fossil record? Cro Magnom, Neanderthal, Homo erectus...all similar but descernably distinct species of the homonid genus and clearly differentiated from the ape species in that all were bipedal, with large skulls, brains, the most distintive characteristics that separate man from apes.

And one point I'd like to bring up that has not as yet been discussed, the fact that one's belief in God/higher being and evolution are mutually exclusive. I am a Chrisitian of the Protestant faith and believe as many others whose lives are deeply rooted in their belief in God, from religious scholars to rabbis, to ministers to priests, that one can believe in both a divine creator and evolution.

I hope all opinions are welcomed here