Many scientists find problems with evolution

From EvoWiki

1 Claim
2 Source
3 Responses
4 Fallacies contained in this claim
5 External Links
6 Related claims
7 See Also
8 Acknowledgments

Claim

Many mainstream scientists point out serious problems with evolution, including problems with some of its most important points.

Source

Discovery Institute, 2001. A scientific dissent from Darwinism. [1]
Gitt, Werner, 1993. Did God Use Evolution?, p. 84

Responses

As far as we know, this is not true. As the statement stands, if the scientists are not named the claim cannot be verified. When one hears the scientists and the problems they have, it turns out to be one of the following cases:
- There are scientists trying to solve unsolved problems, but that is the normal situation in all sciences.
- There are also scientists whose field is not evolution and whose understanding of the subject is poor, but who don't realize that the problem lies with their own shortcomings.
- Out-of-context quotes.
- Outdated quotes.
The argument often refers to scientists who identify problems with certain hypotheses within evolutionary theory yet still accept evolutionary theory as a whole.
Even in Darwin's time, scientists never assumed his ideas were infallible, and criticism of those ideas should never be equated with rejection of evolution or even denial of Darwin's role in making evolution by natural selection a credible scientific theory.
"Many" is a serious exaggeration when one takes into account that DI's petition is only signed by approximately 600 (assuming all of them are scientists, and the vast majority do not appear to work in biology-related fields) versus the 300,000+ working scientists. 0.2% of any population is likely to support some fringe idea.
Kenneth Chang of the "New York Times" found that only around 25% of those who signed the DI's petition were biologists. This means that only 150 of the 600 petitioners were biologists. Many of the biologists also possessed higher degrees (such as PhDs) in theology, with bachelor's degrees in biology. [2]
The DI petition was also confusingly worded. Robert Davidson, a doctor and professor of nephrology, first joined but then dropped off of the list after realizing that the petition and the Institute was anti-evolution.
Many more -not to say statistically all- mainstream scientists point out serious problems with creationism, including problems with all of its points, particularly its inability to explain any biological or geological phenomena. If this is meant to suggest a popularity contest, evolution still wins by a landslide.
Evolution is a fact. However, the most popular explanation -Darwinism- may be subject to revision because, as a human explanation, it can alway be further reasoned and argumented.
Professionals in diverse areas of human endeavor assume the soundness of principles of evolution. [3]

Fallacies contained in this claim

Anonymous Authorities (the scientists are usually not named so we can't look up if it's true)
Argument from Ignorance (if I don't understand a theory, the theory does not work)
Appeal to Authority (statements rely as their proof on having been made by scientists)
Quoting Out of Context (statements imply lack of support for evolution)

External Links

Mark Isaak's page for this claim [4]
CreationWiki's comments [5]
[6]
NCSE, 2002, Analysis of the Discovery Institute's Bibliography, [7]
Tamzek, Nic, 2002, Icon of Obfuscation: Jonathan Wells' book Icons of Evolution and why most of what it teaches about evolution is wrong, [8]
Westneat, Danny, 2005. Evolving opinion of one man (Davidson story) [9]
The Panda's Thumb, 2005. "400 (Minus 1). [10]