>> Actually I think that particular proposition isn't particularly difficult to prove or disprove.
If you mean the proposition that "usually" soil provided with water, air and some organic matter tends to develop microbe populations that support fertility, i would agree that it's easy to observe. perhaps difficult top STATE the hypothesis in a provable way!
But I meant that it would be hard to prove which of these causes brought about the surprising behavior or properties of soil life:
- heavy-duty co-evolution going on for millions or billions of years
- and/or magic,
- and/or divine intervention,
- and/or some Gaea principle,
- and.or Nature spirit
- and/or or (Nature) consciousness
- and/or I-don't-know-what-but-I-sure-am-in-awe-of-the-result
I think the first option is the standard contemporary scientific speculation, but to me it is only slightly more specific than my final speculation. "Co-evolution" hints at directions for further speculation, but it has a ways to go before it's specific enough to be a TESTABLE hypothesis.
I think the middle five are pretty much different ways of saying "I know that I don't know, but my philosophical leanings are in THIS direction".
