<HTML>Deano wrote:
[...]
> Appearently, "Professional Scientific Speculation" is all we
> have, today.
[...]
I wander through an ancient oakwood where I find mature oaks with acorns on. On the ground I find a few tiny saplings whose stem and root are growing out of an acorn.
Is it 'professional scientific speculation' to infer that the acorn is the means of reproduction of the oak and that the sapling, if undamaged by the forest ponies, deer, etc., will grow into a splendid oak?
Or must I invoke a mysterious being, unseen by all, that comes each night and substitutes a slightly larger sapling. Or pehaps each night there is an invasion of 'saplings from space' that each destroy and replace one that was slightly larger. I have never seen these things either, so surely they must be on the same level of validity as the 'professional scientific speculation' in the previous paragraph? After all, I have never actually seen an oak grow from an acorn to a majestic tree several hundred years old, neither have I watched an acorn devlop, fall and sprout.
All I have are 'snapshots' and a modicum of intelligence...</HTML>
