Misconceptions about evolution
1. Individual organisms evolve in response to environmental changes.
False. Populations evolve, not individuals, resulting in a GRADUAL change that would be imperceptible over short periods of time. So much for my dreams of becoming a superhero tomorrow through a bite from a radioactive spider!
2. Evolution is random.
False. Only some aspects of evolution are random, such as mutations and genetic drift. The aspect of evolution that adapts populations to their environment is natural selection. Natural selection is the opposite of random, eliminating unsuccessful variants.
3. Evolution inevitably “betters” organisms and increases their complexity, resulting in steady progress upward from lower animals to humans.
False. Evolution is not progressive in the sense of leading to some predetermined goal. Evolution makes organisms “better” only in the sense of increasing their adaptation to their environment. In doing this, sometimes complicated organisms will evolve to be less complicated (for example, the ancestors of snakes had legs). Humans, snakes, insects, & bacteria all are successful in their own ways, but none is evolutionarily “better” than others, and none are the “goal” of evolution. There are no higher or lower creatures; all are successful by virtue of being alive!
4. Evolution means that people evolved from apes, chimpanzees, or monkeys.
False. This is a double helping of misinformation. First, evolution involves much more than the origins of humans – it applies to all living things. Second, the evolutionary hypothesis holds that humans share a common ancestor (millions of years ago) with these other groups, not that we are directly descended from Bonzo the chimp. Our common ancestor had characteristics of both groups, and both groups themselves have unique traits not shared by that ancestor.
5. There are no transitional fossils—we don’t have the missing link.
False. Although they are relatively rare, many transitions can be tracked in the fossil record, and the gaps are gradually filling in with each new find.
6. Evolution has never been observed.
False. Evolution has been observed literally thousands of times. For instance, over time, bacteria become resistant to antibiotics and insects become resistant to pesticides.
7. No, not microevolution -- I mean no one has observed a new species or “kind” evolving.
False. Although these are rare events and take a long time, scientists have watched speciation, or at least the first stages of speciation, in perhaps a dozen cases. For bigger changes over longer time periods there is lots of indirect evidence of evolution as well, including fossil sequences, homologous body composition, DNA similarities, biogeography, etc.
8. Evolution is outside the realm of science because these big changes (e.g., from fish to amphibian) cannot be observed directly.
False. Most of science depends on indirect observation – we do not know the structure of an atom or DNA molecule from direct observation. In the same way that the scattering of elementary particles in an accelerator reveals details about the structure of an atom that we cannot observe directly, fossils, homologies, DNA, and other evidence reveals details about evolution that we could not directly observe because we were not present.
9. Evolution cannot occur because it would violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
False. This law states that the amount of disorder in a closed system never decreases. Life on earth involves an open system, maintained out of thermodynamic equilibrium by energy input from the sun. My kids may increase the disorder in my living room, but energy from the sun (trapped in cookies) lets them (and me!) clean it up.
10. Ancient humans (cavemen) once hunted dinosaurs.
False. The last dinosaur died out over 50 million years before the first human emerged. Sadly, large fractions of the American public don’t realize this. I blame Fred Flintstone only a little, and fear of teaching evolution in school much more.
11. Evolution is only a theory; it hasn't been (and cannot be) proven.
False. First, this mischaracterizes theories in science – theories are not wild hunches, they are explanations that have survived many tests and rigorous scrutiny. Gravity is a theory, relativity is a theory, hormonal control of behavior is a theory; none of these are wild hunches. Instead, they are the cream of the crop.
Second, nothing in science is ever proven. However, some hypotheses have been confirmed so many times that scientists accept them as our best working models—they become theories! Evolution is among these strongly supported theories.
Third, there are many observations (e.g., mammalian fossils in Precambrian rocks) that would disprove our current theory of evolution. Darwin devoted a full chapter to a discussion of what sorts of findings would “utterly annihilate” his theory, but so far the theory still stands.
12. Evolution explains how life began.
False. It only seeks to explain how life has changed in response to different environments. The origin of life is a legitimate field of science, but is as yet in its infancy.
13. Evolution is atheistic, and negates the existence of a God.
False. Philosophers and theologians long ago concluded that the existence of a creator can be neither refuted nor proved through the scientific method, so any conclusions about God or Creation rely on one’s own personal faith, which is outside the realm of science. If the idea of evolution destroys your confidence in God, blame your faith, not science.