A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION

  NATURAL GENETIC ENGINEERING The original blog post identified four groups involved in the current evolutionary debate: staunch supporters of the modern synthesis, promoters of an extended evolutionary synthesis, advocates for intelligent design, and creationists. In the view of microbiologist James A. Shapiro, most people fall into only two groups: creationists and Neo-Darwinists (supporters of the modern synthesis). He does so by lumping proponents of intelligent design with creationists and promoters of an extended evolutionary synthesis with supporters of the modern synthesis. Shapiro’s theory of natural genetic engineering, supported by a relatively large body of scientific literature, is radically different. It claims that random variation (mutation) and natural selection has only a very limited effect on evolution.   Rather, a multitude of complex processes within cells respond to the environment and guide the evolution of lifeforms. The initial blog post cited a f...

  The Peppered Moth and Darwin’s Finches Do the Classic Textbook Examples Prove Evolution?   Many biology textbooks have long cited two classic examples as proof of Darwinian evolution. They are the color change of the Peppered Moth and the beak changes (size and shape) in the Galapagos finches (Darwin’s finches). These examples continue to be cited even though science has subsequently shown each to be either greatly oversimplified or completely wrong. Neither example is a simple nor obvious proof of evolution as claimed.   The related scientific literature is extensive and complicated, but careful reading shows that the examples of the peppered moth and Darwin’s finches are being misrepresented. DARWIN’S FINCHS Birds in the Galapagos Islands now commonly known as Darwin’s finches are frequently cited as proof of evolution. The claim is that an original finch evolved into over a dozen different species. This occurred because various birds were shaped by natural ...

  A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION INTRODUCTION:       Philosophers pursued the concept of evolution for thousands of years.   Many different ideas were explored and discarded until biologists blended the thoughts of Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin into a theory called the modern synthesis in the first half of the twentieth century.   While it attracted considerable support in the scientific community, it is now being challenged by new discoveries in microbiology.   The following overview follows the changes in thinking over the years.   At this time, the accumulation of books and papers on evolution constitute a huge body of literature and no overview can possibly be all inclusive.   Hopefully, this overview reviews enough pertinent documents to adequately demonstrate how evolutionary concepts have changed over the years. Much of the voluminous literature on evolution contains a mix of philoso...