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RE: The Biggest Misunderstandings About Evolution
True, but double check the bit I wrote about evolution being a theory. In science a theory is "a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence" according to the National Academies of Science. By definition, the theory of evolution is actually accepted as fact by science because biologists can no longer question whether or not it has occurred. So according to science, a theory can absolutely be "fact".
That's just Science hoping Darwin is right, without real proofs that can be independently verified by other scientists.
Politically Darwin's theory was welcomed at that time in history, as it revealed "God's" plan, that change should be slow and gradual over time, evolution.
Britain and a lot of the world at that time was seeing the rise of anarchists and socialists, who wanted to smash the old order and quickly replace it with a new system. Darwin's science argued that slow change was "Natural" and should be emulated by man.
Alternatively, it can be argued that the events that create change are almost "instant" as with the Dinosaurs being wiped out by a meteor, Ice Ages, Volcanos and when the majority of Earth life was killed off by a poison gas, called Oxygen.
Note: When I say quickly, I mean thousands of years too, but not millions and billions.
Science likes uniformity and to put periods at the end of sentences, etc. They like order and for things to be settled. Most science will be corrected, annotated or simply be proven wrong. Being wrong is part of the process of learning.
Uncertainty is what causes people to look for answers, "Settled Science" does the opposite, it requires conformity. Those in power ridicule and punish those who would challenge the status quo.
Like the inquisition, funding is withheld, staff positions are not offered and in the case of "settled" climate change, some have actually proposed criminalizing dissent.
Eyes Wide Open
Fair enough. The only point I'll contest you on there is where you said there are no real proofs that can be independently verified by other scientists. What makes you say that? There have been thousands of fossil discoveries and genetic studies that have shed a lot of light on evolutionary processes. Many of these studies confirm the conclusions of other studies and build upon one another. There is so much collaboration among evolutionary biologists that I just feel that statement isn't quite accurate.
Good discussion, hopefully we haven't put anyone to sleep, yet.
If evolution is true, it should be occurring right now, we should be able to see it today. Forget about the fossil records, for a moment and let's look back 100, 200, 600 years. What animals have evolved?
Humans have long life cycles as do whales and tortoises, etc., but a lot of animals and insects have shorter life cycles, like a male house fly of 28 days with over 2,000 generations living, dying and not evolving (?) in the last 300 years.
Show me any proof that a current living species is evolving right now, going back less than one thousand years. We should be able to document at least one species out of the 8.7 million believed to be roaming the Earth today.
This is a serious question, that science simply cannot answer.
You're right, evolution is an ongoing process. Actually we have witnessed speciation events in several organisms; in these species we are witnessing population shifts that give rise to a new species. For example, killer whales are showing a major shift that will likely give rise to a new species down the road; one population uses echolocation quite heavily, predominantly feeding on fish, while the other population hunts mammals like seals and has largely learned to hunt without echo location. These animal largely breed within their own population so it is likely we will see two separate species arise with unique hunting habits. The article below shares several examples of speciation events we are currently witnessing.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/evolution-watching-speciation-occur-observations/
With flies in the lab, we can also see major shifts. One study was able to breed out the gene for wings, and the population shifted towards wingless flies. This is an evolutionary change that is observable in real time. Plenty of evolution can be seen right now, but it does take an incredibly long time to monitor the major shifts; for now we can only observe the minor shifts of microevolution.
Flies, similar to jellyfish, haven't drastically changed in millions of years, but that doesn't mean they aren't evolving. It simply means that the pressures they face have not forced them to change their physical form very much. Like a jellyfish, they are well-suited for survival, so they don't need to evolve these drastic physical changes. Some organisms may change drastically over a short time period while others may go unchanged for hundreds of millions of years!
Herpetologists are also studying a lizard that as we speak is making the transition from carnivore to herbivore, which is a huge change because it requires a different dentition and digestion process.
https://steemit.com/science/@herpetologyguy/lizards-show-transition-from-carnivore-to-herbivore
And what about dogs? We impose artificial selection upon them, selecting for specific traits and characteristics, and as a result dogs have drastically changed since their domestication! Change at the hands of some sort of pressure is evolution, even if it's human-guided evolution!