SuMMARy
■■Evolution is a fact—a hypothesis that is so thor-
oughly supported that it is extremely unlikely to
be false. The theory of evolution is not a specula-
tion, but rather a complex set of well-supported
hypotheses that explain how evolution happens.
■■There is a great range of views on whether or
not religion and evolution—or religion and sci-
ence generally—are compatible. Especially in the
united States, many reject evolution and instead
accept divine creation because they think evolu-
tion conflicts with their religious beliefs. The
positions taken by creationists on issues such as
the age of Earth and of life vary.
■■Science is tentative; it accepts hypotheses provi-
sionally and changes them in the face of convinc-
ing new evidence. it is concerned only with test-
able hypotheses; it depends on empirical studies
that are subject to peer scrutiny and that can be
verified and repeated by others. Creationism has
none of the features of science, so it has no claim
to be taught in science classes.
■■The evidence for evolution comes from all realms
of biology and geology, including compara-
tive studies of morphology, development, life
histories, and other features, as well as molecular
biology, genomics, paleontology, and bioge-ography. Evolutionary principles can explain
features of organisms that would not be expect-
ed of a beneficent intelligent designer, such as
imperfect adaptation, useless or vestigial fea-
tures, extinction, selfish dnA, sexually selected
characteristics, conflicts among genes within the
genome, and infanticide. Furthermore, all the
proposed mechanisms of evolution have been
thoroughly documented, and evolution has been
observed.
■■it is important to understand evolution not
only because it has broad implications for how
we think about nature and humanity, but also
because it has many practical ramifications.
Evolutionary science contributes to many aspects
of medicine and public health, agriculture and
natural resource management, pest manage-
ment, and conservation.
■■o ne of the most difficult and controversial chal-
lenges is to join biological and social science in
order to understand how the distinctively human
cognitive and behavioral characteristics evolved,
the extent to which human behaviors have an
evolved genetic foundation, how that foundation
interacts with cultural and other environmental
factors to shape individual behavior, and how
genes and culture have coevolved.TERMS And ConCEPTS
argument from
design
creationistintelligent design
(ID)
natural lawsspecial creation
theistic evolutionSuGGESTionS FoR FuRTHER REAdinG
Books on creationism, id, and defending evolu-
tion and science:
Why Evolution Is True, by Jerry A. Coyne (oxford
university Press, new york, 2009), and The
Greatest Show on Earth, by Richard dawkins
(Free Press, new york, 2009), are outstanding,
well-written descriptions of the evidence for
evolution and its mechanisms by leading evo-
lutionary biologists.
Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Mat-
ters, by d. R. Prothero (Columbia university
Press, new york, 2007), is a valuable introduc-
tion to the subject by an authority on verte-
brate paleontology.
Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, sec-
ond edition (Greenwood Press, Westport,
CT, 2009), was written by Eugenie C. Scott,director of the national Center for Science
Education, who probably knows more about
the evolution-creationism controversy than
anyone else.
Defending Evolution in the Classroom: A Guide
to the Creation/Evolution Controversy, by B.
J. Alters and S. M. Alters (Jones and Bartlett,
Sudbury, MA, 2001), is a perceptive analysis of
how to present and teach evolution.
Denying Evolution: Creationism, Scientism, and
the Nature of Science, by M. Pigliucci (Sinauer
Associates, Sunderland, MA, 2002), shows why
creationism fails as science, but addresses the
limits of science as well.
Science, Evolution, and Creationism (national
Academies Press, Washington, d.C., 2008) is
a 70-page booklet issued by the most pres-22_EVOL4E_CH22.indd 600 3/22/17 1:49 PM