Description: Science and Faith, together
While the theory of evolution by natural selection has become the well established basis for all biological science, and while further developments in genetics and molecular biology have confirmed the theory, it continues to suffer from an affliction that has always plagued all of biology – the lack of any mathematical rigor. To date there is no useful mathematical law that fully encompasses the meaning of Darwininian evolution. Fisher’s famous “genetical theory of evolution” published in 1931, describes th
It is often held that biology has been resistant to mathematical treatment due to the enormous complexity of the subject. That is not quite true. Science has never actually described its subjects by mathematics, that is impossible for either physics or chemistry, whose subjects are also extremely complex. What science does do is describe a model of reality with mathematics. The laws of motion are based on models, as are the laws of chemistry. Because such models, (eg a frictionless inclined plane, or an ide
Biological models are rare. When they are produced, the results are often quite brilliant. The literal model building by Watson and Crick led to the solution of the DNA structure, which some consider to be another revolution in biological science. Models of predator prey interaction, using difference equations, led to the understanding of the role of chaos and nonlinear dynamics in biology. Even Mendelian genetics, including the Hardy Weinberg equilibrium law is a model (which is why Mendel’s actual experim