Evolution reaction paper

The documentary, “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” tells the story of Charles Darwin’s conception of his theory of natural selection, and how it explains the evolutionary process and species adaptation. The story begins with a brief overview of his 5-year stint on the HMS Beagle as the ship's naturalist, during her South American voyage. The film shows how Mr. Darwin collected fossils and many species of animals and birds from many different regions especially the Galapagos Islands. It portrays Mr. Darwin’s return to England and his struggle between the mainstream religious beliefs and his personal beliefs of how different species came to be. Additionally, the documentary covers his presentation of fossils and ideas to the scientific community,

Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution to explain the origin, diversity and complexity of life. I will will disprove evolution by showing that natural selection only explains small evolutionary changes, collectively known as microevolution. Natural selection cannot drive large evolutionary changes, macroevolution. I will also show that the primordial soup, in which life supposedly evolved, did not exist.

1. What is the direct evidence in support of the theory of natural selection? Include at least four examples. Paleontology shows us that organisms have changed gradually over time, as reflected in the fossil record. Biogeography shows us how new species only arise near very similar species. Similar species share a common time and place. Developmental biology shows us that an organism builds on ancestral features as it develops from a single cell. Genetics shows us that we can group species by similarity of

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

Charles Darwin (1859), "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree." For many humans a fully functional eye argues against such a statement, however within the very subtext of the same quote one can easily understand that the human eye could evolve with a mutation from what is considered the norm. These mutations that impair what is known as 20/20 or perfect vision can happen through gestation or at any time thereafter for countless reasons (American Foundation for the Blind, 2015; Vision Australia, 2015; Baton Rouge Regional Eye Bank, 2015).

Charles Darwin includes an effective beginning for his work, Natural Selection. By introducing his theory with a set of questions, interest to continue reading is developed. One question Darwin poses is the possibility of how one can survive, taking into account the circumstances of climate and traits. An interesting concept Darwin alludes to is that some individuals possess certain traits that enable them to survive. Another method implemented in the beginning of Darwin’s piece is the broadness of the context. Darwin does not go into any specifics right away, as the reader will learn more as they continue. “Let it be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life” (Darwin 900). Darwin accounts for how unique each organism is, but generalizes the statement by categorizing all organisms as complex. By doing this, the reader is inclined to continue

For more than 150 years, a revolutionary idea has been spreading all over the world. It helped us discover our origins and revealed our place in nature. It led to the unification of once independent fields of scientific inquiry. And it is being used today to tackle some of the most pressing problems facing modern civilization. But its implications go far beyond science. It has shaped our culture, politics, philosophy and religion, and it has been used to justify war and genocide. That idea is Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Morphology is one type of evidence that natural selection occurred. Morphology is a branch of biology that deals with the study of the form and structure of organisms. Darwin discovers that a human, mole, bat, whale, salamander, bird, and Pterosaur have the same structure of arm, even though they look different. When carefully examining skeletons of these animals, he found that their bones and where they are located or aligned within the limb, are exactly the same as the human. Over time, the overall structure had not changed.

(D) - Charles Darwin wrote “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”, published in 1859. His book explained the theory of evolution, and the process of natural selection. Darwin’s work was met with much dissent at the time of its release, as what he proposes directly conflicts with many Christian beliefs on the creation of the world. Today, the

Darwin’s theories and discoveries caused much controversy to the world and still does today. These controversies occur more in

When Darwin traveled over to the Galapagos island he traveled on a ship called the HMS Beagle. Darwin traveled to the Galapagos island to get information about evolution with the animals there. When he was there he observed tortoises, when he observed these animals he got a understanding of evolution over time. He saw that the tortoises in the area with food low to the floor had a flatter shell and a short neck, but when he observed tortoises with food high up he saw that the tortoises had a long neck and raised shell. Over time the tortoises evolved she they can survive in their environments. When he was their he wrote a book called the Darwins book on the origin of species. The information that he wrote about was information about species that were not fixed but could change over time by natural causes.

Charles Darwin’s experiment was not 100% accurate. His definition of mechanism of evolution was quiet accurate but two major factors were missing.

Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace like so many of their predecessors made observations of natural phenomena that inspired proposals of how life on earth evolved, unlike others these men formed plausible explanations of how the changes in populations occurred without having any knowledge of Mendelian genetics which was presented in 1868, and provided the micro-mechanism for evolution that Darwin could never explain with his theory of Pangenesis. Rather, based solely on the observations each made over time observing different species of populations around the world, both men were able to pen the ideals that would serve as the foundation of the modern theory of evolution.

Many scientists believe variations are caused by environmental factors, such as food availability, weather and more; and that species evolve when environmental conditions change to increase the species survival. Darwin censures this idea; he believed that the main cause of variation is due to reproduction (Chapter I). Darwin suggested that parents pass down specific characteristics to their offspring, and those variations are continued on in the following generations. The problem with Darwin’s theory of reproduction is that Darwin did not comprehend how or why some characteristics are perennial and how others are not. Darwin’s inferences on variations also conflict with the idea that God created species independently, which was widely understood by many people in a time where religion was prominent (Chapter II).

The article, “A Matter of Scale,” urges the audience to observe the small and extraordinary components of the biosphere and acknowledge its genetic variations as explained by Darwin’s theory of evolution. However, Kelly’s essay, “Evolution: An Article of Faith,” considers Darwin’s theory as a “false religion” suppressing God’s ability to create the “work of intelligence.” (Evolution) The heated debate over the credibility of Darwin’s theory of evolution has led to the division of scientific and religious groups. Devoted, religious people discover two major flaws with Darwin’s theory of evolution regarding the inaccuracies of the fossil record and the contradicting phrase “survival of the fittest” that has passed on harmful mutations to next