Darwin, Darwinism, and Evolution. The debate, and the reallity.
When Charles Darwin set off on a five year journey of exploration, he could have never imagined how it would turn out. Many people think of the Galapagos islands when they think of his findings, but there was so much more to his entire journey, and his ultimate conclusion of Natural Selection. While he is most famous for his finches, Darwin had many more examples of evolution, and a better understanding than many people living today.
In total it took Darwin 20 years of researching, exploring, and understanding to come to the conclusion that natural selection was the force of change among species. After consulting with many specialists, and even dissecting animals, he noted how curiously similar species are, and yet small to large differences made them incompatible for breeding.
Speciation can take long or short periods. What we think of as long or short, with our life span of approximately 80 is nothing on the time clock of the planet. For instance, dinosaurs lived here on this planet for around 150million years. During that time species came and went, but over Milena. They changed over millions of years as well. On the time clock of history, hundreds to thousands of years is a small amount of time. Animals who have been able to adapt and sustain life as they first evolved, such as crocodiles, have basically been the same for hundreds of millions of years. So for a species to be formed after 500 years, 100 years, or 1000 years, can still be a rapid change.
The driving mechanism is natural selection. Nature picks the best of the best to survive. Not by any intent or design, but by living on a planet which is not cognoscente of its existence. This planet is volatile and unpredictable, so as climate change occurs, of dry, and wet periods oscillate species have to adapt to their environment and its changes, or face extinction.
Many of the species alive to day share common ancestors. As Darwin pointed out, and while he was not the first to come to this conclusion, he was the first to present overwhelming evidence to his claim. Even during his time, Darwin shocked the world, because he took us from the darkness of not understanding the similarities noted in nature and species, to being able to see how closely we are related.
For example, mammals, are all closely related. Horses which evolved from a smaller ancestor have undergone dramatic changes. From having 4 toes in the front and 3 in the rear, to having bone structures that are remnants while having a nail like covered single toe in the front and rear. Not only that, but they have gone from the size of a medium dog, to the size they currently are. This has taken place over thousands of years. As grassland became available, they adapted from forest dwelling animals, into larger animals who could survive in the open.
Other examples are remnant hip bones in the whale, fossils of snakes with partial limbs, the human coccyx, fossils of the ancestors to whales with actual limbs, dinosaurs with feathers, ones showing a progressive line of diverging into modern birds, and so on the story goes.
As paleontologists uncover the past, they find more and more intermediate species, not that it is needed to conclude natural selection. Since we now have DNA analysis we can see the genome and how everything is closely related, we have even been able to find gene switches which are dormant in modern creatures, but once served a purpose in animals in history. Things like teeth in a chicken, and longer tails, human embryos looking like fish in their primary stages. They aid in the understanding of the impact evolution has had, and will have on our planet.
Some people think that evolution has not been proven, or that it would be easily dis proven. Yet scientists know that is not at all true. Even finding fossils in the evolutionary line, that didn't fit what scientists now believe is how we evolved, would dismiss evolution. That is because evolution is not only a fact, but it is also a theory. A theory supported by volumes of evidence.
So how do we call it a theory, and fossils could change what we know, but evolution still be true? That is because scientists are willing to rewrite the record on how we evolved, if the evidence is found. It would not change the fact that we evolved. The time record already shows there was a period of millions of years where humans were no where on this planet, and while we have found fossils leading from our ancestor who diverged with chimps, around 6 million years ago, we don't have the complete line, or the line back to the first cell that formed.
Then how can we say we know? Simple, we have enough evidence for it, to show a pattern, a line from where humans began to evolve, and where mammals evolved. Trait after trait new species arose, species died out and with millions of species found either in the fossil record, or living, there is a record of relation. Humans have no divine origins. There is no moment where we can say all life was blinked into existence and then started evolving further, but humans remained the same.
We humans are living proof of our own evolution. Looking at human diversity in skin color, facial features, height, body frame, one can see how we began adapting to our environments, and if we had been given millions of years of isolation, we might have speciated.
How can I say that? Just 2 years ago a hominid was found on an isolated island which was human like, but dwarfed. That is likely due to less resources, and survival. Bones that have been found show that they were of normal stature when they first arrived on the island. While the whole like of their evolution has not been found, what we do know is ultimately they became small, and went extinct. Since they are extinct, we don't know about their reproductive organs, and if they had differences that might have made interbreeding with other hominids difficult.
People who call it Darwinism, as if it were a religion deny the reality with wilful ignorance. There is not one true scientist who can say evolution did not happen. That is because there are thousands of museums world wide with millions of fossils, there are currently millions of species alive, we have evidence leading from simple organisms, to highly complex.
The eye has evolved separately many, many times. Lungs in whales, dolphins, remnant bones, similar genetics, the number of digits in wings, or fins, the mammalian embryo sack, and thousands of things all over the world, can't be wrong.
For those who say fossils were put there to test faith. Well it would be absurd to concoct species so similar and leading to modern ones, just to fool people. Not only that, but many of those species don't have anything to do with species that are currently alive on this planet. They do not in fact have any descendants. So placing those there is like placing a small orb in the vast emptiness of a whole universe and making only one species special out of millions, and then giving them a whole universe they can't even explore. Needlessly complex, and uselessly overdone.
Evolution is not something scientists want to lie about, we place in their trust a great deal of trust for the survival of the human race. Drugs, gene therapy, stem cells, modern medicine, vaccines, cures, and even all the machines around us show the need for a basic trust with the scientific community, one that we have established. The only reason science works is it is based on the reality of how things work, have worked, and have evolved to work.
When it comes to evolution, it would take the lifetime of all of us to even understand the amount of data that exists showing how it has happened. It took Darwin 20 years to mass what he had, and he had only scratched the surface, today we have millions of dedicated scientific personnel working on understanding the small fraction they study. We have volumes of evidence ready and at the finger tips of anyone and everyone willing to look.
It is utter garbage to deny evolution. Absurd to claim you know from a singular book how humans came to be, and wilful ignorance to proclaim with the breath of a divine being we walked into history in the middle of it, special and above all that was already occurring on this planet. Either you come to the conclusion that we evolved and accept it or you blindly follow a ideology which has made no sense, provided no evidence, shown no facts, and keeps you blind and ignorant to the reality.
In total it took Darwin 20 years of researching, exploring, and understanding to come to the conclusion that natural selection was the force of change among species. After consulting with many specialists, and even dissecting animals, he noted how curiously similar species are, and yet small to large differences made them incompatible for breeding.
Speciation can take long or short periods. What we think of as long or short, with our life span of approximately 80 is nothing on the time clock of the planet. For instance, dinosaurs lived here on this planet for around 150million years. During that time species came and went, but over Milena. They changed over millions of years as well. On the time clock of history, hundreds to thousands of years is a small amount of time. Animals who have been able to adapt and sustain life as they first evolved, such as crocodiles, have basically been the same for hundreds of millions of years. So for a species to be formed after 500 years, 100 years, or 1000 years, can still be a rapid change.
The driving mechanism is natural selection. Nature picks the best of the best to survive. Not by any intent or design, but by living on a planet which is not cognoscente of its existence. This planet is volatile and unpredictable, so as climate change occurs, of dry, and wet periods oscillate species have to adapt to their environment and its changes, or face extinction.
Many of the species alive to day share common ancestors. As Darwin pointed out, and while he was not the first to come to this conclusion, he was the first to present overwhelming evidence to his claim. Even during his time, Darwin shocked the world, because he took us from the darkness of not understanding the similarities noted in nature and species, to being able to see how closely we are related.
For example, mammals, are all closely related. Horses which evolved from a smaller ancestor have undergone dramatic changes. From having 4 toes in the front and 3 in the rear, to having bone structures that are remnants while having a nail like covered single toe in the front and rear. Not only that, but they have gone from the size of a medium dog, to the size they currently are. This has taken place over thousands of years. As grassland became available, they adapted from forest dwelling animals, into larger animals who could survive in the open.
Other examples are remnant hip bones in the whale, fossils of snakes with partial limbs, the human coccyx, fossils of the ancestors to whales with actual limbs, dinosaurs with feathers, ones showing a progressive line of diverging into modern birds, and so on the story goes.
As paleontologists uncover the past, they find more and more intermediate species, not that it is needed to conclude natural selection. Since we now have DNA analysis we can see the genome and how everything is closely related, we have even been able to find gene switches which are dormant in modern creatures, but once served a purpose in animals in history. Things like teeth in a chicken, and longer tails, human embryos looking like fish in their primary stages. They aid in the understanding of the impact evolution has had, and will have on our planet.
Some people think that evolution has not been proven, or that it would be easily dis proven. Yet scientists know that is not at all true. Even finding fossils in the evolutionary line, that didn't fit what scientists now believe is how we evolved, would dismiss evolution. That is because evolution is not only a fact, but it is also a theory. A theory supported by volumes of evidence.
So how do we call it a theory, and fossils could change what we know, but evolution still be true? That is because scientists are willing to rewrite the record on how we evolved, if the evidence is found. It would not change the fact that we evolved. The time record already shows there was a period of millions of years where humans were no where on this planet, and while we have found fossils leading from our ancestor who diverged with chimps, around 6 million years ago, we don't have the complete line, or the line back to the first cell that formed.
Then how can we say we know? Simple, we have enough evidence for it, to show a pattern, a line from where humans began to evolve, and where mammals evolved. Trait after trait new species arose, species died out and with millions of species found either in the fossil record, or living, there is a record of relation. Humans have no divine origins. There is no moment where we can say all life was blinked into existence and then started evolving further, but humans remained the same.
We humans are living proof of our own evolution. Looking at human diversity in skin color, facial features, height, body frame, one can see how we began adapting to our environments, and if we had been given millions of years of isolation, we might have speciated.
How can I say that? Just 2 years ago a hominid was found on an isolated island which was human like, but dwarfed. That is likely due to less resources, and survival. Bones that have been found show that they were of normal stature when they first arrived on the island. While the whole like of their evolution has not been found, what we do know is ultimately they became small, and went extinct. Since they are extinct, we don't know about their reproductive organs, and if they had differences that might have made interbreeding with other hominids difficult.
People who call it Darwinism, as if it were a religion deny the reality with wilful ignorance. There is not one true scientist who can say evolution did not happen. That is because there are thousands of museums world wide with millions of fossils, there are currently millions of species alive, we have evidence leading from simple organisms, to highly complex.
The eye has evolved separately many, many times. Lungs in whales, dolphins, remnant bones, similar genetics, the number of digits in wings, or fins, the mammalian embryo sack, and thousands of things all over the world, can't be wrong.
For those who say fossils were put there to test faith. Well it would be absurd to concoct species so similar and leading to modern ones, just to fool people. Not only that, but many of those species don't have anything to do with species that are currently alive on this planet. They do not in fact have any descendants. So placing those there is like placing a small orb in the vast emptiness of a whole universe and making only one species special out of millions, and then giving them a whole universe they can't even explore. Needlessly complex, and uselessly overdone.
Evolution is not something scientists want to lie about, we place in their trust a great deal of trust for the survival of the human race. Drugs, gene therapy, stem cells, modern medicine, vaccines, cures, and even all the machines around us show the need for a basic trust with the scientific community, one that we have established. The only reason science works is it is based on the reality of how things work, have worked, and have evolved to work.
When it comes to evolution, it would take the lifetime of all of us to even understand the amount of data that exists showing how it has happened. It took Darwin 20 years to mass what he had, and he had only scratched the surface, today we have millions of dedicated scientific personnel working on understanding the small fraction they study. We have volumes of evidence ready and at the finger tips of anyone and everyone willing to look.
It is utter garbage to deny evolution. Absurd to claim you know from a singular book how humans came to be, and wilful ignorance to proclaim with the breath of a divine being we walked into history in the middle of it, special and above all that was already occurring on this planet. Either you come to the conclusion that we evolved and accept it or you blindly follow a ideology which has made no sense, provided no evidence, shown no facts, and keeps you blind and ignorant to the reality.
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