Among the many topics that Americans debate, none is more intimidating than evolution. There hardly exists a group of people that wouldn’t be split by this debate. Because evolution’s validity affects the very core of our values, most people would rather not bring it up; politicians avoid it like a Jack-In-The-Box in Tijuana. The fact that some people vehemently oppose evolution proves, simply, that they don’t understand it.
First of all, the theory of evolution is not a theory in the popular understanding of the word, that is, as mere speculation or guess. Evolution is a theory like the Theory of Relativity, or Newton’s Laws — which are theories as well. Basically, a theory in science is something proven repeatedly by separate sources.
A theory is as close to fact as anything may be in science, because science, by its very nature, does not allow for any idea to be indisputable fact. Still, Newton’s Laws are working fine today, and I bet, but cannot prove, that they’ll work just the same tomorrow.
Secondly, evolutionists are constantly bombarded with the cynical question “If humans came from monkeys, why are the monkeys still here?” Of course humans didn’t evolve from monkeys — that’s moronic.
Evolution does not move in a singular linear progression as pictured by magazine covers where some primate gradually stands up and finds a club. Evolution, visually, is more like a family tree, beginning with a common ancestor that gave rise to different species in a process called natural selection. This process is also a point of contention and misunderstanding. Natural selection is very easy to understand, but calls for an example.
If one were to gather a million mosquitoes, and spray them with DDT, or some other heinous insecticide, 99 percent of those mosquitoes would die. The remaining one percent, approximately 10,000 mosquitoes, could then be allowed to reproduce until one had a population of one million again. Sprayed with the same chemical, only about 50 percent would die. Several generations and sprayings later, the same chemical would exhibit only 10 percent efficacy, and so on, until the population was completely resistant.
Not only is this a real problem for those developing effective pesticides, but it is also a perfect example of adaptation. The mosquitoes that were immune to the chemical were better adapted to their environment, and thus survived to pass on their genes.
That’s really all evolution is. In any species, mutations during an individual’s development may occur. Most of the time such mutations have no effect, and sometimes they are detrimental to the individual. However, once in a great while, the mutation actually helps the organism to survive, and thus the organism is said to be more evolutionarily “fit” with regards to its chance to reproduce within the environment.
In the 122 years since Darwin’s death, scientists have supplemented his ideas with hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence supporting evolution. The fossil record shows intermediate developments within evolving species. Radioactive dating methods have shown that the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, plenty of time for evolution to have occurred. To deny the validity of radioactive dating is not only to challenge evolutionary theory, but to ignore all we know of modern chemistry and physics as well. We know about DNA and how it works, we understand protein synthesis, we can see evolution occurring at a microscopic level and, as per the example above, we can see it occurring at a macroscopic level. The sheer time and research invested into evolutionary theory, support from the fields of biology, chemistry,and physics; and common sense make evolutionary theory one of the most solid theories that we have ever understood.
Amidst the overwhelming evidence that supports evolution, there are those who argue against it because it compromises the literal interpretation of their religion. Evolution disproves a few Biblical assumptions: Is the earth more than 6,000 years old? Yes. Was all life created at once in its present form? No.
But nowhere in evolutionary theory does it say that there is no God, or that he or she could not have dictated evolution’s occurrence. If a compromise must be made, that’s the solution. But there are people so hell-bent on literally interpreting the Bible that they would compromise the intelligence of their own and other’s children, making it illegal to teach or test on evolution.
We are in a very dangerous place right now. There are enough people, in power or otherwise, that are either uninformed or inexplicably defiant of evolutionary theory, who could do serious injury to our already second-rate education system. We have elected a president and a Congress that believe that if they hit the Constitution with a Bible hard enough, the First Amendment will fall out.
If our generation has any duty of importance, it’s to strive against this attempt to baptize our public schools, and to preserve the understanding of our own origins.
