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Theory of Evolution
There are plenty of transitional fossils in the record. The absence of any
one intermediate does not negate the whole theory. Paleontologists
must work with fossils they can find, and it is not surprising that we would
have some gaps in our record. Think of a jigsaw puzzle that has a couple of
missing pieces, you can still get an idea of what the picture is.
There are also some groups that are well represented in the fossil record
and provide us a clear picture of how a group has changed over time. Some
notable5 examples are the transitions from reptile to mammal, from land
animal to early whale, and from dinosaur to bird.
You can view several examples of transitional fossils in paleontology
records.
Myth 4 - Evolution says that life originated, and evolution
proceeds, by random chance.
There is probably no other statement which is a better indication that the
arguer doesn't understand evolution. Chance certainly plays a large part in
evolution, but this argument completely ignores the role of natural selection.
Chance provides genetic variation, which is the raw material that natural
selection has to work with. From there, natural selection sorts out variations
that give greater success.
Atoms and molecules do not arrange themselves randomly either, but
according to their chemical properties: sodium naturally bonds to chloride to
form salt, carbon will naturally form long chains. Also realize that evolution
does not necessarily deal with how life first began, evolution focuses on the
processes that continue to guide and change existing life.
A common analogy6 related to this misconception is the one of the monkey
and the typewriter. Those who do not understand evolution argue that if you
sit a monkey at a typewriter and let it randomly hit keys, it will never produce
a novel. This analogy leaves out the essential component7 of evolution -
SELECTION. The analogy would have to take into account that the monkey
at the typewriter would stop occassionally and weed out bad designs, such
as combinations of letters that do not make words. Once you have a
collection of words, eliminate any words that do not make sense..and so
forth. If you continued this way, you may eventually develop a sentence or a
paragraph, or even a novel if you continued long enough.
Evolution works on the principle that random chance plays a role, but
selection of good traits is more important to the overall process.
Myth 5 - Evolution is only a theory; it hasn't been proved
First, we should clarify8 what "evolution" means. Like so many other words,
it has more than one meaning. Its strict biological definition is change in
genes over time which lead to a change in traits, something that is
observable. People often associate the word "evolution" with common
descent, which suggest that organisms share a common ancestor. To gather
evidence for common descent, inferences9 must be made about current
organisms and their relationship to other organisms, both past and present.
Biologists may disagree on these lineages and relationships, but that does
not mean they disagree with the theory of evolution.
Calling the theory of evolution "only a theory" is, strictly speaking, true, but
the idea it tries to convey 10 is completely wrong. The argument rests on a
confusion between what "theory" means in common language and what it
means in science. In science a theory is a model that is used to explain
sets of data, and can be used to make predictions. Theories in science
can be modified or even proven false if new data is discovered. Theories
are supported by a wide variety of evidence from scientists from different
fields and can be used to provide scientists a way to understand natural
processes.