{"id":19295,"date":"2013-11-20T09:21:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T14:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=19295"},"modified":"2013-11-20T09:21:20","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T14:21:20","slug":"circular-macroevolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/11\/circular-macroevolution.html","title":{"rendered":"Circular Macroevolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I am grateful to Paul Braterman for helping me to notice just how circular a particular objection to evolution is.<\/p>\n

Some science deniers accept microevolution, the sort that can be experimentally studied in laboratories, but will reject macroevolution, saying that macroevolution has never been observed.<\/p>\n

The problem with this is that macroevolution is defined as the sort of evolutionary change that occurs over longer periods of time than are observable.<\/p>\n

If you define macroevolution as that which occurs over periods too long to observe, and then object that it cannot occur since it has never been observed, you have offered a circular argument.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am grateful to Paul Braterman for helping me to notice just how circular a particular objection to evolution is. Some science deniers accept microevolution, the sort that can be experimentally studied in laboratories, but will reject macroevolution, saying that macroevolution has never been observed. 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