"Rand Simberg" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 03:40:25 -0800, in a place far, far away, "Chosp"
made the phosphor on my monitor glow in such a way as
to indicate that:

Creationism is a disproved theory.

No, Creationism is a non-disprovable theory, which is why it doesn't
belong in science classes (which is not to say that it doesn't
necessarily belong in schools).

Creationism has both empirical aspects and non-empirical aspects.
The empirical aspects are disprovable

They are not.

I have a theory that the entire universe was created ten minutes ago,
complete with memories. Disprove it.

It is not a statement relating to anything empirical. There is
nothing to test. There are no empirical aspects to disprove.

Just as is creationism.

Creationists have made descriptions of the so-called flood
(and the so-called "canopy" which preceded it) which have
testable consequences. They've made predictions about the
rate of decay of the earth's magnetic fields, changes in
gravity, variations in the speed of light, the second law of
thermodynamics, any number of areas which have testable
consequences. The predictions have uniformly failed to
correspond to reality, however.
These are what I was referring to as empirical aspects and
they can and have been disproven beyond a reasonable
doubt. Not, of course, to True Believers, however.