Evolution and Science is the umbrella category for articles exploring recent findings in peer-reviewed journals with implications on the theory of evolution. Evolution is understood to explain life’s origin, unity, and diversity theoretically. According to NASA –
“Life is a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.”
Darwin Then and Now explores this understanding of evolution by testing the evidence scientifically.
Evolution
Life is a hierarchy of multilevel interconnected biological systems. The search for scientific evidence of evolution incorporates evidence from the following subcategories: anatomy and morphology, behavior, embryology, extinction and speciation, fossil record, molecular biology, the origin of life, physiology, and transitional links.
Science
Biologists, like other scientists, apply the scientific method to make observations, pose questions, generate hypotheses, perform experiments, and form conclusions, including falsification testing. Charles Darwin envisioned natural selection acting through “slight, successive” changes. Studies focus on connecting these changes emerging from a common ancestor to scientifically validate the evolution theory. In The Origin of Species, Darwin proposed the following falsification test to validate his theory scientifically –
“By the theory of natural selection, all living species have been connected with the parent-species of each genus, by differences not greater than we see between the natural and domestic varieties of the same species at the present day… So that the number of intermediate and transitional links, between all living and extinct species, must have been inconceivably great. But assuredly, if this theory be true, such have lived upon the Earth.”
Using Darwin’s falsification test, for evolution to be scientifically valid, the evidence must demonstrate throughout the biological system’s descendants a lineage of transitional forms originating from a common ancestor.
Test the Evidence
Apply the physical evidence reported in recently published papers to test Darwin’s theory. Since the two essential factors to validate Darwin’s theory are common ancestry and transitional links, evidence of these must be identified.
Biology consists multilevel functions operating simultaneously, therefore the study of evolution must encompass all natural science levels. Search for evidence of these essential factors in newly published scientific findings in the following fields of science.
- Anatomy and Morphology
- Behavior
- Embryology
- Extinction and Speciation
- Fossil Record
- Molecular Biology
- Origin of Life
Each article describes what was found and why the scientific evidence undermines the theory of evolution.
Darwin Then and Now is an educational resource on the intersection of evolution and science and the challenges facing the theory of evolution.
Refer to the Glossary for the definition of terms.
