Abstract
"Everybody" knows, one might suppose, that evolution is about facts and the creation model is about belief. Certainly this was the message of the PBS TV series entitled "Evolution." An internal memo sent to PBS stations stated concerning evolution, "All known scientific evidence supports evolution. . . . New discoveries over the past 150 years have all supported the validity of the theory of evolution." (PBS Internal Memo. 2001. The Evolution Controversy: Use it or Lose it. Evolution Project/WGBH Boston. June 15, p. 5). The memo further defined a scientific theory as a "higher level of understanding that ties `facts' together" (p. 5). As to the creation model, the memo dismissed it as "not science. It is part of a religious belief system . . ." (p. 6). Such statements and other similar ones over the years have convinced many that science in general and evolution in particular are based on observations from the natural world and thus they are empirically or factually based. The interesting thing is that this is not the modern understanding of science among scientists themselves. They have long since abandoned much concern for actual data.