by Paul Braterman » Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:30 pm
I think that's too weak. Whatever may have been the case in 1859, change over time, homologous succession in the fossil record, and molecular phylogenies are observed facts, from which we can infer the further fact of common ancestry. Present-day biologists generally do, up to a point, accept Darwin's theory that change over time is driven by natural selection, but that such change has occurred is a fact in the same way that the occurrence of the Ice Ages is a fact (I deliberately chose an example that does not rely on testimony, but which the Creationists themselves accept, however they may explain it).
Paul Braterman