It is said that if you keep repeating a lie multiple times, it eventually becomes the truth. Long before we are taught about evolution (if at all) or come across the subject in the academic world, we may get introduced to the theory early in life from our surroundings. Unfortunately, these sources usually provide nothing more than a caricature of the theory and is a result of ignorance, misinformation, or even worse, intentional misrepresentation. Because of lack or limited education on evolution in early years of schooling, most of us are not familiar with even the basic concepts of this important scientific theory.
In order to really understand what evolution and natural selection is, we first need to filter out the bullshit portrayal of what it is not. So here are the top 10 myths about evolution in the order of popularity (but not necessarily significance), that has plagued this elegant scientific theory since the dawn of time—or to exaggerate a little less—at least since 1859 when the first edition of On the Origin of Species was published.
Myth #10 – Evolution is pre-determined and purposeful
Evolution is neither goal-oriented nor it is purposeful. It is not like the robotic Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movie series, totally mechanical with a single purpose in mind. The process does not have an inherent drive to produce more modern or better species over the previous ones. Natural selection basically results in new species that are better adapted to their current environmental pressures. And this doesn’t always translate into more modernity or complexity. In evolutionary terms, no one species is inherently better than another—only better adapted to a specific environment over another.
For example, we humans are usually considered the most evolved life forms (self-gifted humble title). But if we are put in a different environment, say the Amazonian forest or the Serengeti, for which we are not well-adapted, we will easily move from the top to the bottom of the food chain. As the prominent evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould succinctly described, if we take the cassette of evolution and rewind and replay, it will be a different movie than what we have now and the human species might not even exist. This raises two questions. First, what the hell is a cassette? Second, we could easily have some other species dominating the world right now instead of the big H.s, like in the Jurassic Period, when Dinosaurs were at the very top of the food chain. The growth of the evolutionary tree is heavily dependent on contingencies and thus, there are multiple, undetermined possible outcomes from a starting point, not just one.
Myth #9 – Evolution is degrading to humans
The theory of evolution shows how we are related and share ancestry with the rest of the animal kingdom, from reptiles to birds and rodents to primates. To some, this very fact is strong enough to reject the theory wholesale because it directly contradicts the idea about human exceptionalism in terms of our origin. Personally, for me it is far more embarrassing to share ancestry with other humans like Kim Kardashian and Newt Gingrich than a snake or an earthworm.
In reality, instead of being degrading, the theory of evolution gives us a far more majestic and grandeur perspective of the human race, considering the remote possibility of our species coming into existence in the first place and the rapid progress our species has cumulatively made. It is the theory of evolution that helps us to understand our innate biases and overcome our irrational prejudices against race, gender, nationality, religion, tribe loyalty or sexual orientation and not get bogged down about differences that are ultimately superficial and inconsequential.
Myth #8 – Evolution is about the origin of life
This myth has caused a lot of distraction and grief to the credibility of the evolutionary theory as when talking about origin of life, there are numerous speculations based on very educated guesses but there is yet no concrete evidence available. This aids in incorrectly believing that evolution is more speculative than factual. However, theory of evolution and natural selection only provide the mechanism of how new forms of life evolved from previous ones and how the tremendous diversity is created in the plant and animal kingdom. It is not a scientific theory to explain the origin of life itself on this planet and does not claim anything on the subject.
Myth #7 – Intelligent Design is valid alternative theory to Evolution
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement is popular mainly in the United States and has tried to replace evolution in public classrooms since decades in the form of Creationism—but without success. ID is Creationism in a cheap pseudoscience suit, replacing the biblical god with an “Intelligent Designer”, in an attempt to publicly distant the idea from religion and the supernatural. This “theory” makes an argument that for all the design we see in this world, there has to be a designer behind it (Paley’s watch argument). And that’s pretty much it. No evidence for such a claim, no possible mechanism of proving or disproving, and topping it all… no explanation about where this magical intelligent designer comes from.
Source: http://www.time.com
As anyone can see, this type of argument clearly belongs to the supernatural realm. And precisely because of this reason, ID could be taught in a theological course but does not belong in a science classroom. The United States federal courts upheld this judgment in 2005 during the highly publicized trial – Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in Dover, Pennsylvania. Since then, the ID movement has gone underground and currently, waiting to be resurrected from the dead. Wait, this sounds familiar…
Myth #6 – Evolution is a random process and a product of chance alone
As discussed in the previous post, the process of natural selection is anything but random. The only thing random in the whole process is the change in the genetic code through DNA mutations, exchange of genes during meiosis (to form eggs and sperms) and genetic drift. Variance in genes come cheap—unless they are designer genes—and can provide advantageous traits to individuals of a species in adapting to a particular environment over others.
To use a simple analogy, different sizes of rocks can be used in a rock chipper for crushing, before they get sequentially filtered by multiple sieves, starting from filtering out bigger pieces to ultimately small fine pieces. The size of the rocks going in and their breaking can vary randomly (just like the mutations in DNA) but the filtering by sieves is selective at every level and is not dependent on chance or luck. With each sieve, one can start seeing order in the sizes of the stones produced. Natural selection is also purely selective at every level, filtering out the less adapted individuals out of the circle of life, generating life forms that are better adapted to survive in their niche.
Myth #5 – Evolution progresses linearly as rungs on a ladder
One of the iconic illustrations in the media on evolution of man is the transition shown from a prehistoric monkey (sometimes a chimpanzee) all the way to a modern human. These types of images portray a false idea that evolution progresses linearly, with a start and an ultimate end point. Instead of being like a chain linked together in a line, evolution progresses more like a tree, from the main bark, branching out with several different branches, each branch then further dividing into multiple thinner branches and so on.
With such a progression, it is inaccurate to think that one living species is “more evolved” or overall advanced than another. It may only be better adapted to a specific environment than another. Plus, there is no predetermined ladder with anticipated results where a particular species will eventually evolve from the lowest to the highest rung. The appearance of direction when tracing out a particular branch of the evolutionary tree only occurs in hindsight and not because there is an inherent goal within the evolutionary process.
One of the most infamous memes trying to discredit the theory of evolution is that we don’t have sufficient fossil evidence to show the descent from common ancestry and if ancestral species were evolving into new species gradually, then there should be a continuum of fossils for all the life forms in the middle—the so called missing links or transitional fossils. A major reason for the prevalence of this myth is the lack of understanding on how fossils are formed. Fossils are not formed for every animal that dies. Most of the times, the dead animal gets rapidly utilized in the food chain and not much is left behind.
Myth #4 – Evolution is false because there are gaps in the fossil record
Multiple conditions are required to form a fossil. Conditions that occur rarely. And as a result, a very minute percentage of life forms that existed ever became fossils. To add to the difficulty, the small proportions of fossils formed are not lying on the surface for paleontologists to easily collect—many of them are still trapped in the depths of Earth. Yes, it is true that we do not have all the fossils for all life forms that used to exist in the past and are now extinct. But we do have more than enough so-called transitional fossils, especially at higher taxonomic levels to infer that all life forms eventually evolved from a single common ancestor. All over the world, museums of natural history and science are filled with fossils and one only has to walk in to see the evidence for themselves.
Myth #3 – Humans evolved from Monkeys
A caricature of Darwin as an ape, published in The Hornet in 1871.
If I had received a Canadian loonie for every single time I heard this, I could have started my own legal Super Pac! Even though it is more believable than the Adam & Eve funnytale, the modern Human species or Homo sapiens did not evolve from monkeys—or baboons, chimpanzees, orangutans or gorillas. But humans along with other great apes evolved from a common ancestor over millions of years.
Darwin was mocked in his life time by many by exploiting this myth, resulting in the infamous caricature of him as half monkey half human when The Descent of Man was published in 1871. Chimpanzees and other present-day great apes are our closest evolutionary cousins, not our ancestors and have continued to evolve too since millions of years, just like modern humans, but on a different path based on the environment they live in.
Myth #2 – It’s Just another Theory
This one breathes on the confusion people have in differentiating between a theory in the colloquial sense and a well-established scientific theory. The word theory is many times used interchangeably with an idea or hypothesis, or plain-old thought, with or without any necessary evidence or rationale to back it up. On the contrary, a scientific theory is a cumulative explanation to predict a natural phenomenon, based on multiple observations, experiments and facts that has been thoroughly tested and confirmed. A scientific theory is not simply a brain-fart from a scientist’s mind, but is a product of thorough research and experiment, and is backed by solid verifiable evidence. And most important of all, is also open to falsification if contrary evidence arise.
Evolution is not a theory but a fact—and the mechanism is explained by the scientific theory of natural selection. However, to make it more user-friendly, it is commonly known as the ‘theory of evolution’ or ‘ the evolutionary theory’. But this important detail is repeatedly and happily forgotten by its active opponents due to the usual “convenience amnesia”. So saying evolutionary theory is only a ‘theory’ is being disingenuous to say the least. The heliocentric theory (sun is the centre of our solar system), theory of gravitation, theory of thermodynamics, Kepler’s planetary motion theory, Atomic theory, The Germ Theory—all these are scientific theories, backed by overwhelming evidence and verified thoroughly from the predictions they make. If we can reject evolutionary theory simply by labelling it as ‘just another theory’, we might as well get rid of all of these other theories too and go back to the Dark Ages, where simple facts of life were easily ignored and discredited.
And finally, the most popular myth… Drum rolls, or even bread rolls please..
Myth #1 – Evolution always dictates survival of the fittest
For many, evolution, specifically natural selection is synonymous with ‘survival of the fittest’—a termed coined by the biologist and philosopher Herbert Spencer in 1864, five years after the publication of On the Origin of Species. When thinking in evolutionary terms, the word ‘fittest’ in the phrase is commonly misunderstood by people as brute physical strength and/or aggression.
People in the business sector especially are known to confuse it and stretching the phrase to great lengths, to rationalize and justify unregulated free enterprise and vulture capitalism—everyone for themselves. Others have used to justify socio-political ideologies such as eugenics. However, ‘fittest’ in terms of biology doesn’t have to mean more stronger or violent, but can also equate to intelligence, better skills of camouflage, more flexible to adapt to an environment, cooperating instead of competing, love, and empathy.
Frequently, an individual of a particular species may choose to run away from a conflict situation, instead of staying for a bloody outcome. This may not jive with our perception of being ‘fit’ but the decision will keep the individual alive to see another day. Plus, if any characteristic that increase the survival at the individual level is not heritable, it has no relevance to evolution as it cannot be selected for. And as a result, evolution does not always translate into survival of the fittest.
More importantly, it is grossly manipulative to use the phrase to justify any political, social or economical ideology, simply because it is the ‘natural’ way of life. With respect to human lives, evolution explains where we come from and how we reached the place we are in today. It is not a prescription to infer our moral standards from or on how to behave or live our lives.
The Incredulous Hulk 
Referring to Myth 6: Shouldn’t “Natural Selection: ring a bell that it's selecting on some criteria and not just by “chance”…
I loved your “bread rolls” joke:)
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