Fact of Science or Religious Belief
?
In order to PROVE that evolution is true, we first need to prove that NO Creator / Designer was involved with how life originated. And in order to do that we need to know (with certainty) the following things:
Exactly how and when the first self-replicating life-forms made their own complex membranes, micro-copy machines and information readers (that read their DNA), and programmed their DNA with the information needed to divide and make proteins: since all known life-forms have DNA -- along with cell machinery that's needed to read it, copy it, and translate it from a 4-letter (DNA / RNA) code to a 20-letter protein code.
That NO Intelligent Being or Beings were involved in the process, and ...
Almost everything there is to KNOW about the Universe: including exactly HOW it came into existence, how stars and heavy elements formed,1 and how the physical constants of the Universe (i.e. gravity, magnetism, strong and weak nuclear force, etc.) came to be so finely tuned to each other.
Number one above would require demonstrating in a laboratory, pond, or other naturally derived environment, exactly how the first living organisms came to be. And for those who didn't know, scientists still cannot explain life's origin in any sort of detailed way that doesn't include all sorts of (impossible to prove) speculative and/or highly imaginative scenarios that may have taken place hundreds of millions of years ago where nobody was there to observe what or how it happened: and are thus beyond the realm of science. This is because to date, no scientist can demonstrate how it supposedly happened for any and all to see. The 'when' part of this scenario is also -- in and of itself -- BEYOND the reach of science. In this regard, one of the co-discoverers of DNA, and a micro-biologist colleague proposed the theory of Directed Panspermia: or that life probably came to earth from outer space.
Number two above is impossible, since to do so would require being present when life began, and knowing exactly how it occurred.
Number three is also impossible, since doing so would require knowing exactly how the universe became finely tuned to each other: and where the material came from that some believe 'exploded.'
In other words, to prove that life evolved all by itself, would REQUIRE PROOF that a CREATOR / GOD does NOT exist: which is simply BEYOND the realm of science: meaning that Evolution is a religious belief, or the religion of No God, also known as Atheism.
1. According to Kent Hovind scientists do not know how any elements heavier than iron were formed.