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Junior Skeptic Intelligent Design? Seeing Is Believing Star Stuff Intelligent Life Keep Talking 250 000 Generations Bags Of Time The 5 Major Extinctions Biology Humour Ernst Mayr Charles Darwin Counterintuitive Meaning of "Theory" Technology and Magic
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Biological Evolution
"Natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the
world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is
bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and
insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the
improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and
inorganic conditions of life"
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species
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not
just a theory . com
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World Clock
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Charles Darwin wrote these words 150 years ago to describe what
is now generally acknowledged as the central organizing principle of
modern biology: natural selection
In other words, this is how life works, whether we like it or
not...
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In fact,
here's a quick summary of reality:
Human beings, like all animals, are the sole product of billions of years of
random, mindless biological evolution. Had the dinosaurs not been wiped out
by an asteroid 65 million years ago, I would not be here typing this note.
The same would true if one (or both) of my parents had died in an accident
before they produced me.
The human mind is purely biological - solely the result of Darwinian
selection. Being
an extremely complex,
pattern-seeking organ (and still relatively unaccustomed to
newly-acquired consciousness), it is for the greater part confused, it relies
heavily on 'back-projection',
and is of course expert at wishful thinking.
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It is highly unlikely that
human beings or any other animals have an immaterial or spiritual nature to
them, just as it is highly unlikely that any spiritual or immaterial realms
exist anywhere in the Cosmos. For similar reasons, it is highly unlikely
that any personal or impersonal god exists anywhere in the Cosmos. If such a
being really existed,
science would have produced at
least some tangible evidence by now.
When a human being dies, that person's mind ceases to exist.
Death is an endless, dreamless sleep, where
'one exists only in the memory of others, which is why it is not an end but
a beginning'
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A Special Letter:
As I write this column, I'm flying from San Francisco to New York City
for three days of meetings at the American Museum of
Natural History on bringing the latest
scientific data to the public via museums and
planetariums. I look forward to working with my colleagues. I'm also eager
to gaze again at their stunning collection of fossils and to travel
to distant locations in our universe at the Rose
Center and the Hayden Planetarium, the museum's
digital planetarium. Both the fossil dinosaurs and
the immersive planetarium environment present concrete evidence that
evolution is pervasive throughout the natural world.
The universe evolved from the Big Bang to systems of galaxies, stars, and
planets; these, including Earth, continue to evolve.
Astronomers are teasing out the role of
dark matter and dark energy. Life on Earth goes back at
least 3.5 billion years as evidenced by fossilized stromatolites from
Australia. Over that vast span of time, there's evidence that life
evolved from small single celled-organisms to the
incredible diversity we see today. Scientific
research continues to discover additional evidence that supports
evolution as the fundamental description for how the physical
universe and life developed in the past and will
continue to change in the future.
Yet, teaching evolution remains controversial in America.
Just now, I'm cruising at 35,000 feet above the snow-laced landscape. The
texture of the ground below reveals the power of geologic forces. In
California, Los Angeles moves inexorably toward San Francisco at
3.5 cm per year. Anyone who has experienced an
earthquake has a personal understanding of
the forces that drive geological evolution. At altitude,
the folds, rifts and fault lines reveal an evolving planet. In what's
called the range and basin region, the western
mountain chains thrust upward and great valleys
drop between them. The vast central plains stretch slowly
downhill toward the East Coast from the heights of the Rockies. Over
time, the ancient inland ocean receded, revealing
most of what is now the center of our continent.
More than erosion and weathering shaped this land. As the
tectonic plates push and grind together, our planet evolves. It takes
a long time, but it makes sense when seen from an
airplane window.
Teaching the age and history of our planet takes us back about 4.6 billion
years; it is included in only 55% of our 50 State's science education
standards.
Today, we find the fossil remains of extinct creatures that wandered the
shores of the ancient American sea high in the Rockies and layered in
the badlands of the US and Canada. The evolution
of life on our planet is evident in these layers
of rock and fossil. In Africa, fossil evidence of
early hominids links us to ancestral species. Where did we come from? We six
billion humans find our biological genesis in these African fossils.
Human evolution is included in the National Science Education Standards and
the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, our national statements of the
fundamental science concepts for grades K-12. The Standards and
Benchmarks describe the basics for scientifically
literate citizens. At the state level, politics
overtake science education. Human evolution is included in
only 8% of the state science standards, and is therefore not required
in almost all American elementary, middle or high
school science courses.
("The Emphasis Given to Evolution in State Science
Standards: A lever for Change in Evolution Education?"
Gerald Skoog, Kimberly Bilica, 2002) The evolution of the universe,
our solar system, and our planet fare somewhat
better, but still do not appear
in almost half of the states' science standards. These standards drive the
content of textbooks and state achievement tests, and learning about
evolution is getting left out.
Evolution is fundamental to modern biology, geology and astronomy. Ignoring
or discarding fundamental scientific understandings of the natural
world does not prepare our children well for the
future. As America strives to "leave no child
behind," it's time that evolution is not left behind in our
science classrooms.
Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin
Darwin was born February 12, 1809; he published Origin of the Species at age
50. Each year, Darwin's birthday is celebrated around the world. To
find an event in your area, check the "Darwin Day
Celebration" web site:
http://www.darwinday.org/home/index.html
-
Edna Devore,
11 Feb 2005, Director of Education and
Public Outreach, SETI Institute
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Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately
supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported
by no facts at all
- Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903)
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Creation & Intelligent Design Watch
Hosted by the Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
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The Evolution Education Site Ring
This site ring is owned by John Stear
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