Evolution Ticks Me Off!

Warning! Soapbox ahead!

Okay, maybe not evolution itself, but the whole evolution argument...that bugs me. One of my pet peeves is when people start running their mouths about things they are not qualified to run their mouths about! Evolution is the current most mouth-runned thing and my least favorite. I don't go into people's churches to try and teach evolution. They shouldn't come into public classrooms and try to teach intelligent design.

Of course, I do know the difference between a public school and a church. The issue here is that the religious right wants to march into our biology classes and stamp a disclaimer before evolution. The theory of evolution is a concept that was arrived at by following the same rigid procedure that gave us the theory of relativity: the scientific method. Nobody demands that we put disclaimers before Einstein's theory, at least not anyone who speaks as loudly as those against Darwin's.

In the public's vernacular, "theory" can be almost equally substituted with "guess". But in science, a "guess" must go through a rigorous process before it eventually can evolve into a theory. As a scientist, you must be able to provide substantial evidence and a repeatable experiment with a consistent, observable conclusion. This is something that not a lot of these people understand. They think Darwin was just standing around, scratching his ass, and said (with "Goofy" voice), "Gawrsh, I got me a theory!" Do some research, people! Learn about it before you go mouthing off in a very public setting and making a fool of yourself.

'Cause let's face it folks, evolution is a fact. What I mean is, evolution is a real process that has occurred in the past, occurs in the present and will continue to occur in the future. It is the mechanism of evolution that still claims the title "theory". Scientist still aren't entirely sure why evolution happens or exactly how it happens. Darwin presented natural selection as a possibility, and it is the most commonly accepted theory for the mechanism of evolution. Does it perfectly explain evolution? No. There are still holes in our understanding of it, but virtually no scientist questions the validity of evolution as a real, ongoing event.

Does this mean we came from apes? Well, if you follow the logic, there seems to be a strong indication that this is the case. We know from fossil evidence that, at one time, the diversity of life on this planet was very limited. We know that all living things undergo evolution. We know that, at some point, the diversity of life on this planet increased, indeed is still increasing, however slowly. There was a time when there were no humans, but there were simian creatures, like apes. We have a fossil record of a gradual variation of simian life with ever increasing similarity to modern humans. We know that all simians, humans included, have extremely similar DNA signatures. In fact, we share between 98.5 and 95 percent genetic information with the chimpanzee. So, did we evolve from the chimpanzee? Not likely, but it is likely that we share an ancestor with the chimpanzee.

And all this is just an extreme glossing of the evidence available to suggest this relationship. Does all this mean that it is an incontrovertible fact that humans evolved from a more apelike ancestor? Of course not. Anyone who has ever taken a course in philosophy knows that nothing, absolutely nothing, can be proven 100%, not even your existence. But if we don't exist, why the hell am I even typing this?

See, there's this scale of reasonability. It's reasonable to believe that I exist because you're reading this now, or are you? Seriously though, it's reasonable to believe that humans evolved from an apelike ancestor because there is significant evidence to support it. And just because we believe in evolution, doesn't mean we can't also believe that God or some higher intelligence created us. Clearly, if we were created, then our creator endowed us with the ability to evolve because we are evolving right now. The only thing that is contradicted by a belief in this instance of evolution is the bible and related religious works. But as I've said previously in this blog, there's a difference between faith and religion. Religion makes it next to impossible for you to believe anything it doesn't tell you directly. Faith imposes no such requirements.

But all of this is completely aside from the point. If people are going to oppose the teaching of evolution in public schools, they need to oppose science as a whole. If, however, they are willing to accept the scientific method and all the other facts and theories that we currently owe to it, then they must relent in their singling out of evolution. Biology is a science class, and evolution is a branch of the biological sciences. If parents want to be selective about the science they are taught in school, send them to a sympathetic private school, or home school them. You have that choice. Don't impose your ideology into the public school system, where there are plenty of students who are interested in learning pure, indiscriminate science.

Check out this site for more information on evolution: fact and theory.

Check out Defcon America if you're of like mind and would like to show your support for the continued separation of church and state.

For those who prefer a different flavor of reality, check out the official site of the Christian Coalition.