Is Evolution True - Term Paper Example

Is Evolution True? al Affiliation: Is Evolution true? Chapter1:Introduction Jerry A. Coyne, a renowned from the University of Chicago conducts several researches on evolutionary speciation and genetics and he is the author of the book ‘why evolution is true’. In this book, he brings into focus a full-scale defence about the theory of evolution. He says that life on earth has evolved gradually and it began with only one primitive species, which he describes as a self-replicating molecule that existed 3.5 billion years ago. This molecule then branched out overtime and threw many species into the world and this represents an evolutionary change as a natural selection. The book describes the evolution fact, how genetics have changed overtime, the whole idea of gradualism and the many generations in which evolution has undergone. It explains how new species split off from old existing lineages, the common features and differences of different species (Simpson, 1950). Chapter 2: Review of Evolution Theory New species are thought to have originated from a common branch and ultimately from one original ancestor. Coyne believes that different mixtures of genes are reproduced more effectively than others due to the varying abilities of organisms to survive and give birth in a common, shared environment. It is important to remember that only fittest organisms adapt and survival in particular environments. By saying that evolution is true, Coyne means that the central propositions of the theory of evolution are always true. In addition, he also means that these propositions should be always accepted as true because of the increasingly decisive evidence available. The word ‘theory’ is used by many biologists on evolution but this does not necessarily mean that evolution is a mere theoretical speculation, as applied by many scientists. The word evolution represents a well thought out group of propositions that explain and substantiate the facts about the world and the people living in it (Coyne, 2009). In the first chapter, Coyne talks about the basic conceptual framework on evolutionary theory and tries to clarify common misconceptions about the reality of science and how science works as well as the creationist misuse of the ‘theory’. The second chapter is very much brief and talks about the fossil evidence of evolution and gives out examples on the same. Such examples include the origin of tetrapods, the origin of whales, and creation of birds from dinosaurs among other examples. Coyne brings out the difficulties endured by palaeontologists when finding fossils, the strengths and weaknesses of fossil records and the roles played by the fossils in establishing the actual course of evolution. Most books on ecology give outdated and inaccurate information on evolution and fossil records but Coyne’s book gives the concept of evolution, palaeontology and fossil records a “high table” with a lot of evolutionary evidence. His book is one of the best summaries of evolutionary biology and fossil evidence for evolution (Coyne, 2009). Chapter 3: The Concept of Mute Witness In the third chapter, gives an outline of the concept of ‘mute witness’ of evolution which exists in the form of vestigial organs and bad design. This chapter points out to the strange examples of poorly designed features as one of the powerful arguments for evolution. Coyne covers basically most of the classics and examples of evolution such as whales, pigs, human tails, legs and other features of the body that are designed poorly. He refers to such as ‘dead genes’ and others as ‘junk’ in the human DNA. The most remarkable feature is the left recurrent laryngeal nerves, which exist as unusual long course from throat to aorta and back again to the throat. These nerves were once attached to the gill arch of the developing embryo as one grows from childhood into adulthood. In chapter four, Coyne brings out a review of all the remarkable evidence from biogeography, from islands and their unique biotas to the odd patterns, which are the leftovers at the breakup of the Pangaea (Coyne, 2009). Chapter 4: The Classical Evolutionary Theory Chapters 5, 6 and 7 talks about the classical evolutionary theories such as genetics, the theory of speciation, as well as the evidence that modern scientists have documented about in the past centuries. These chapters form the strength of the whole book since the contents show how Coyne had specialized in these areas as well as his knowledge and familiarity with the field. One of these topics brings out a provocative discussion of the topic ‘how sex drives evolution’. This topic updates us of the classical sexual selection arguments that were first presented by Charles Darwin. These arguments were amplified first when the importance of sexual combinations with genetic variability and speciation were discovered by genetics (Coyne, 2009). The second to last chapter talks about the driving creationist movement of the human evolution. Coyne brings out a very clear summary of the evidence from palaeontology, human anatomy and genetics that make a very big connection to the animal kingdom especially the great apes. In his last chapter on Evolution Redux, Coyne talks about some of the major implications of evolutionary theory. He gives out philosophical reasons as to why biologists could say that evolution is true. The presentation of Coyne on the evidence of evolution is ultimately fascinating and overwhelming. He gives out information from other fields such as biogeography, embryology and fossil records and integrates them with evolutional theory so as to bring out a clear understanding of the whole subject. He does all this in order to demonstrate that organisms have evolved through various stages in life and that natural selection has caused the vast diversity in terms of apparent design (Coyne, 2009). Many biologists have as well continued to critique and question the main prepositions of modern evolutionary theory as brought about by Coyne in his book “why evolution is true”. They comment on his claims that organisms have evolved over time, that lineages have split over time into different species, and that the main engine of adaptation is the natural selection (Coyne, 2009). Chapter 5: Criticism about Evolution Theory In the final chapter of the book ‘Why evolution is true’, Coyne tries to examine the motivation that underlies the resistance of the theory of evolution (Morton, 2002). Coyne’s understanding of evolution can be criticized as pathetic. He believes that if the earth was created several thousand years ago, continents such as Africa and South America would just be a few inches apart. He has no clue about the much-publicized creationist theory of catastrophic plate tectonics. Coyne suggests that living things occur in the same places and locations where they were created. According to him, creation denies speciation. He says that there is nothing in biology that makes sense except it follows the concept of evolution. This claim has been refuted by other biologists as it predated the Darwinian evolution (Coyne, 2009). Most of the criticisms of the concept of evolution come from religion rather than from the scientific community. Many religions have accepted the reality of evolution such as those who advocate for the theistic evolution but still we have a group that rejects all evolutionary explanations in favour of creationism. We tend to believe that God created the world the way it is in its current form and that every living and non-living creature was created by God. They believe that the issue of evolution is all but history, stories and theories. There has been a big conflict between religion and science as far as evolution is concerned (Simpson, 1950). The origin of flight also contradicts the whole concept of evolution. If evolution was true, then the topic on the origin of evolution could have provided us with an excellent evidence to prove the truthfulness of evolution and fossil evidence, but it does not. Though it is believed that flight evolved separately in insects, mammals such as bats, and reptiles, not a single intermediary fossil has been located lying between a living creature and the respective alleged ancestor. There is a link that has been believed to exist between birds and reptiles since it seems to exhibit some features of reptiles as well as those of birds but this could not be concluded as a transitional animal since modern birds fossils have been found together living in the same soil. In addition, biologists have discovered flying beetles fossils, which are thousands of thousands years old, yet they look the same as today’s beetles (Johnston, 1999). The concept of fossil records also shows that creation is more likely than the concept of evolution. If evolution theory was genuine, then the fossil record should support it by all means, but it best supports the theory of creation at the expense of the evolution theory. For instance, squashed trilobite fossils have been found to exist in human footprint fossils though evolutionists claim that trilobites existed 230 million years before the existence of man. In addition to this, the fins of fish, which are predicted to have evolved into the legs of amphibians, are embedded only in the flesh tissue of the fish but not in the skeletal structure, so they could not by any way become the animal’s legs. In the year 1895, Darwin came up with the origin of the species, but there were no transitional fossils that had been found by that time, but Darwin claimed that it was because of the fact that the fossils were not yet discovered. However, he assured other scientists and the proponents of the theory of evolution that eventually, transitional fossils would be discovered at one time. But after more than 150 years, more than 100 million fossils had been discovered but not one of them had been discovered between a species and its respective alleged ancestor (Simpson, 1950). Chapter 6: Influence of Geologist in Evolution Theory Geologists have used the idea of radiometric dating to estimate the number of years in which rocks were formed, and to determine the ages of all the rocks that are contained within these rocks. Radioactive dating, also known as radioactive dating refers to the ways of finding how old something is and in this case the age of the earth. This method makes use of known rates of decay to compare the amount of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes with their decay products, which exist in samples. It is the main method used by geologists to learn on the age of rocks as well as other geological features such as the age of the earth itself. This concept may be used to date a variety of natural and man-made materials. Geologists may date fossils by taking some samples of rocks from above and below the original position of the fossils. Radioactive dating could also be used to gate archaeological materials such as ancient artefacts (Dalrymple, 1991) The earth is full of radioactive elements that occur naturally. These radioactive atoms are inherently unstable and thus they tend to decay overtime into stable smaller atoms called daughter atoms. When rocks in molten form cool and forms igneous rocks, they tend to trap radioactive atoms inside the rocks. After sometime, they decay at a certain rate. Scientists and geologists then collect the data by measuring the quantity of unstable atoms, which are left as residues in the rocks and compare the data to the quantity of stable daughter atoms left in the rocks. Through this they can estimate the amount of time that the rock has spend since its formation to the time when the daughter rocks are being formed from the parent rock (Eldredge, 1996). In order for the geologists to date the older fossils, they tend to look for layers volcanic ash that is found below and above the fossils. Elements that are slow to decay such as potassium and uranium are mostly used (Dalrymple, 1991) Geological time is the time taken during the physical formation of the earth and its development, more so the period prior to the history of human. The earth’s crust consists of a number of layers of sedimentary rock known as the strata. Each layer signifies longevity, in fact millions of years. These layers contain millions of remains of fossils some of which are unique to certain layers. These layers rearranged into a certain order. This order reflects the macroevolution assumption. The creatures placed at the bottom of the columns are believed to have evolved first and are considered the oldest. This arrangement represents the concept of geologic time (Dalrymple, 1991) The geologic time scale helps geologists to determine the age of a rock by the use of the assumed age of the index contained in the fossils, then to determine the fossil age in the similar layer, one looks at the age of the fossils are contained within the age of the layer (Eldredge, 1996). The Cambrian explosion refers to the relatively shorter evolutionary event that existed 542 million years ago in the period, which was known as the Cambrian period. During this period, most major animal phyla also existed as indicated by the fossil records. Some animal grouping featured as first timers in the record of fossils, which took place 542 years ago on the geological time scale during the Cambrian period, which has been discussed above. In biological terms, Homology refers to the existence of ancestry shared between a pair of genes and structures in different species. A good example of homologous structures of the concept of evolutionary biology is the wings of bats and the arms of primates. Homology tends to explain the existence of homologous structures in bats and primates, and how they are adapted to various purposes because of these modifications from a common ancestor (Dalrymple, 1991) References Coyne, A. (2009). Why Evolution is True. New York : Penguin Books. Dalrymple, G.B. (1991). The age of the Earth. Stanford University Press Eldredge, N. "What Drives Evolution?" Earth Magazine (December, 1996). International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Radioactive dating. Compendium of chemical terminology, internet edition. Johnston, C. (1999). "Section Three: The Origins of Evolutionary Theory". ... And Still We Evolve. Liberal Studies Department, Malaspina University College. Retrieved 2007-07-25. Morton. GR (2002). "The Imminent Demise of Evolution: The Longest Running Falsehood in Creationism". Retrieved 2007-03-24 Simpson, G. (1950). The Meaning of Evolution, New Haven: Yale University Press. Wyhe, J. (2002-7). "Charles Darwin: gentleman naturalist: A biographical sketch". The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2007-07-25. Read More