How Did Stephen Jay Gould Support Evolution

What is evolution? Evolution in modern terms is fairly easy to understand. Evolution is the theory that life on earth began with a single celled organism that lived more that 3.5 billion years ago that slowly evolved into

Evolution is a change in the characteristic of living organism through time. Modern synthesis, one of the greatest intellectual achievements of biology, could explain how mutations and natural selection could produced large-scale evolutionary change. There are 4 mechanisms for evolution to occur; mutation, gene flow, genetic drift and natural selection.
Although, there are a number of misconceptions about evolution; it does not explain the origins of life, it is not progressive, natural selection is not about the survival of the fittest individuals in a population, humans are not currently evolving, it does not make organism better designed nor does it gives organism what they need to survive. This essay will describe further, 3 common misconceptions

The theory of evolution, as set forth by Charles Darwin in 1859, stated that all plant and animal life evolved over long periods of time from simple to more complicated forms through mutation and adaptation. He also taught that only the fittest of each species would survive. He further postulated that the first living cell evolved in a "warm warm little pond" and that it took billions of years for the present diversity of living things to evolve. At the time, it was thought that the few "missing links" in the fossil record would be soon filled.(Darwin, 1927 ). Today, however, there is today a considerable body of scientific evidence that refutes this entire theory.

Gould explains how Evolution is a theory and a fact. Evolution is a fact but how evolution happened is a theory. Darwin's theory of natural selection as an example of how evolution happened. Creationists deny evolution. Creationists believes in a supernatural creator of plants and animals. They believe that science would never discover how the creator created creations. Gould believes that Scientific creationism is a meaningless phrase because it’s

Stephen Jay Gould in his article "The Evolution Of Life On Earth" aims to clarify the misconception of natural selection as the sole reason for evolution. Yet, he emphasizes on the presence of other causes and the complex unforeseeable nature of the universe that can not be explained in one theory. Even though the article is concerned with a deep scientific subject and factual information, we see the usage of description in every sentence. Description has an intrinsic role in this article where the uniqueness and the beauty of the language relies on the strong descriptive construction. It employs the power of the language and the readers senses to bring life to the subject. It also simplifies it by liking the described setting or object to something else that the readers are easily able to visualize and associate in their minds. In addition, using specific descriptive words make a statement more dynamic and effectual to the readers convincing them and inviting them to see the situation from the author perspective.( to help convince the reader and strengthen the argument of the author). It could exaggerate the details to effect the readers in a more emotional way and capture their attention. This won 't only engage the targeted audience, but it will allure other readers as well.

Evolution is “the idea that species change over time and have a common ancestry”(Parks, 2014). According to Charles Darwin theory of evolution, “is that all species came from one single source and over time, we have adapted to our environment for survival during the history of the Earth.” It's a fact that since human kind entered the world, up until this day we have evolved to suit a different kind of world. As to say we went from a simple kind of form and progressed into a more complex form in other words, we are still evolving to this day. “The idea that biological species, including humans, have changed over time and have given rise to other species can be traced all the way back to the ancient Greek philosophers. Our present-day understanding

by Kathiann M. Kowalski it says in the section of Gould Gets involved, In one of the passages it says how that Gould found out a lot of experts who end up finding the same theory with fossils. As this quote states “Gould cited the work of thousands of scientists who have described “layers with fossils-- deposits built up over eons and moved and shifted by various forces, which contain the remains of organisms of a past geologic age preserved in them.” This says how that Gould worked with other scientists that identified fossils and they all have the same perspective view of what the fossils did. It shows evolution. As one of the similar to the same issue of the fossils, in the book it states in scene two that Drummond is talking about this old age rock that has been a prehistoric marine creature that was found in a county that lived for millions years ago. This quote says “Look, Mr. Brady. These are the fossil remains of a prehistoric marine creature, which was found in these very county and which lived here millions of years ago, when these very mountain ranges were submerged in water.” (Jerome Lawrence p.95). It portraits how that the fossil were found directs to how evolution works. Evolution takes change over time. Which connects to the article where Gould was talking about the fossils and how it built up over eons and moved shiftly by various forces, evolution

Creationism, it is theory that claims every element in the earth, including living species, are all created by the god as the Bible said, which denies the evolutional theory came up by Charles Darwin. Then, since Darwin’s evolutionary theory is testable and make solid predictions whereas creationism cannot be tested nor predict precisely, it has been considered as a pseudoscience. However, recently there is a Ph.D. Biochemist bring creationism theory back to the audience again, his name is Duane Tolbert Gish from University of California. Dr. Duane T. Gish has written several books and articles to support creationism, and the most famous one is Evolution: The Fossil Say No!, which published in 1978. In his article, he denied the evolutionism since he claims there is insufficient fossil evidence to support Darwin’s theory, and which would prove creationism is real.

Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristic of biological populations over successive generations (Wikipedia). The most notable theory of evolution was Charles Darwin’s speculation about natural selection. Natural selection is the process by which nature rewards those individuals better adapted to their environments with survival and reproductive success, defined by Ker Than, a Senior Editor in TechNewsDaily on livescience.com. Darwin published the first edition of “The Origin of Species” in 1859, in which Darwin theorized how a bear can turn in to a whale by natural selection. "I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale," Darwin speculated (Than).

Of course Professor Gould’s writings were rarely without substance. He does go on to point out two creationist’s argumentative fallacies and then, finally, he addresses the issue of fact versus theory. His distinction, summed up both imperfectly and incompletely: a theory is comprised as a rigid, codified series of explanations of the facts; therefore, the theory of evolution, a consistent explanation of the recurring trends found in the fossil record, is in line with said “facts.” It is a

A Quick Overview of Seth Millstein’s “How to Argue for Evolution: Seven Common Creationist Arguments, Debunked,” Charles Darwin is known for writing about how different species evolved from common ancestors. Since then, there has been a debate as to whether evolution is a practical explanation for similarities between animals. Seth Millstein, a writer for the online magazine Bustle wrote an article on it in 2014. Millstein, rebuttals seven comments people that don’t believe in the theory of evolution use. It is entitled “How to Argue for Evolution: Seven Common Creationist Arguments, Debunked.”

Evolution is a mysterious topic, as there is just so much evidence that has been found by many people throughout history. The first person to spread the idea of evolution was Charles Darwin. He helped to spread the idea of evolution to others such as Gregor Mendel, and helped many others to accept the findings of Boucher de Perthes. Evolution is defined by the changes of organisms throughout time to better the survival rate of said group of organisms.(definitions, 2009) The generations of organisms therefore evolve through time as the changes occur. There are many pieces of evidence such as, analogous and homologous structures in organisms, cladograms, the order of appearance of structures during embryological development, and fossil records. Evidence of evolution at it’s finest.

Unlike the others Gould is able to bring forth substantial evidence that can be expanded upon and tested by scientists. Some of the evidence he brings forth is how the possibility of a meteor strike is not all that impossible.This can be examined upon by physicists Luis and Walter Alvarez “The number of Apollo objects and the immensity of geological time virtually guarantee that impacts will occur once in a great while.”(Gould 17) Further substantiated by the discovery of iridium which is found in meteorites near cretaceous extinction sites. What I liked that Gould does is show that like a good hypothesis it can be tested or disproved. It is not simply what he believes to be true, He does this with a finding by the University of Maryland. “Reporting that volcanic eruptions of Kilauea on Hawaii had belched forth unexpectedly high levels of iridium; perhaps an extraterrestrial source need not be sought.” (Gould

Following the statement of Paul Davies was the announcement of Stephen Gould, another evolutionist. Earlier in the video, Dr. Mortenson places a significant burden on the evolutionary tree. He then proposes the question of, is there any fossil evidence, supporting the evolutionary tree. In regards to the truth of the tree, Gould declared evolutionist only have enough information and evidence to support the tips of the tree. Still scientist will argue, they possess evidence to prove evolution. But Mortenson provides us with sufficient evidence and countless assertions of evolutionary scientist testify, the fossils scientists have discovered almost identically match their common day ancestors. So the question is clear, how much tangible evidence does evolutionist have? The answer is none! Scientists have no concrete physical evidence to support their claim that evolution is fact. Contrary to that, evolution has fashioned countless physical examples and made numerous assumptions; all of which has been proven to be false. In the end, this supplies us with a crystal clear truth of evolution, and leaves us without any doubt evolution is absolutely

Evolution has been debated for many years. Most scientists assume evolution to be true, but it is not officially proven. Evolution is known as “fact and theory,” because it is a fact that organisms have changed over time, but the mechanism that changes those organisms is uncertain. One of the major debates regarding evolution is the belief in creationism. Creationists believe that the Universe and organisms on Earth were all created by a divine power. There are also some theories in which creationism and evolution coexist. One idea is that the divine being who created the world used evolution as a method. Another idea is that science and religion are actually the same thing and religion explains the unknown parts of science. For example, science says that the world couldn’t have been created in seven days, but one of God’s days may not be the same length