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Frequently asked questions

Many of these questions are rephrased objections to evolution that users have argued should be included in the text of Evolution. The reason for their exclusion is discussed below.

The main points of this FAQ can be summarized as:

The process and theory of evolution are both uncontroversial among biologists.
Wikipedia:Neutral point of view requires that minority views not be given undue emphasis.
Therefore it is against Wikipedia policy for views without scientific support, such as all known objections to evolution, to be interjected into a science article like Evolution.

More detail is given on each of these points, and other common questions and objections, below.

To view the response to a question, click the [show] link to the right of the question.

Q1: Why won't you add criticisms or objections to evolution in the Evolution article?

A1: This is essentially mandated by Wikipedia's official neutral point of view policy. This policy requires that articles treat views on various subjects proportionally to those views' mainstream acceptance in the appropriate academic field. For example, if two contradictory views in physics are held by roughly an equal number of physicists, then Wikipedia should give those views "equal time". On the other hand, if one view is held by 99% of physicists and the other by 1%, then Wikipedia should favor the former view throughout its physics articles; the latter view should receive little, if any, coverage. To do otherwise would require, for example, that we treat belief in a Flat Earth as being equal to other viewpoints on the figure of the Earth.

Due to the enormous mainstream scientific consensus in support of modern evolutionary theory, and pursuant to Wikipedia's aforementioned policies, the Evolution article references evolution as an observable natural process and as the valid explanation for the diversity of life on Earth. Although there are indeed opposing views to evolution, such as Creationism, none of these views have any support in the relevant field (biology), and therefore Wikipedia cannot, and should not, treat these opposing views as being significant to the science of evolution. On the other hand, they may be very significant to sociological articles on the effects of evolutionary theory on religious and cultural beliefs; this is why sociological and historical articles such as Rejection of evolution by religious groups give major coverage to these opposing views, while biological articles such as Evolution do not.

Q2: Evolution is controversial, so why won't you teach the controversy?

A2: As noted above, evolution is at best only controversial in social areas like politics and religion. The fact that evolution occurs and the ability of modern evolutionary theory to explain why it occurs are not controversial amongst biologists. Indeed, numerous respectable scientific societies, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences, have issued statements supporting evolution and denouncing creationism and/or ID.^[1] In 1987 only about 0.15% of American Earth and life scientists supported creationism.^[2]

Thus, as a consequence of Wikipedia's policies, it is necessary to treat evolution as mainstream scientific consensus treats it: an uncontroversial fact that has an uncontested and accurate explanation in evolutionary theory. There are no scientifically supported "alternatives" for this view.

However, while the overall theory of evolution is not controversial in that it is the only widely-accepted scientific theory for the diversity of life on Earth, certain aspects of the theory are controversial or disputed in that there actually are significant disagreements regarding them among biologists. These lesser controversies, such as over the rate of evolution, the importance of various mechanisms such as the neutral theory of molecular evolution, or the relevance of the gene-centered view of evolution, are, in fact, covered extensively in Wikipedia's science articles. However, most are too technical to warrant a great deal of discussion on the top-level article Evolution. They are very different from the creation–evolution controversy, however, in that they amount to scientific disputes, not religious ones.

Q3: Why is evolution described as though it's a fact? Isn't evolution just a theory?

A3: That depends on if you use the words evolution, theory, and fact in their scientific or their colloquial sense. Unfortunately, all of these words have at least two meanings. For example, evolution can either refer to an observed process (covered at evolution), or, as a shorthand for evolutionary theory, to the explanation for that process (covered at modern evolutionary synthesis). To avoid confusion between these two meanings, when the theory of evolution, rather than the process/fact of evolution, is being discussed, this will usually be noted by explicitly using the word theory.

Evolution is not a theory in the sense used on Evolution; rather, it is a fact. This is because the word evolution is used here to refer to the observed process of the genetic composition of populations changing over successive generations. Because this is simply an observation, it is considered a fact.

Fact has two different meanings: in colloquial usage, it refers to any well-supported proposition; in scientific usage, it refers to a confirmed observation. For example, in the scientific sense, "apples fall if you drop them" is a fact, but "apples fall if you drop them because of a curvature in spacetime" is a theory. Gravity can thus either refer to a fact (the observation that objects are attracted to each other) or a theory (general relativity, which is the explanation for this fact). Evolution is the same way. As a fact, evolution is an observed biological process; as a theory, it is the explanation for this process. What adds to this confusion is that the theory of evolution is also sometimes called a "fact", in the colloquial sense—that is, to emphasize how well supported it is.

When evolution is shorthand for "evolutionary theory", evolution is indeed a theory. However, phrasing this as "just a theory" is misleading. Theory has two different meanings: in colloquial usage, it refers to a conjecture or guess; in scientific usage, it refers to a well-supported explanation or model for observed phenomena. Evolution is a theory in the latter sense, not in the former. Thus, it is a theory in the same sense that gravity and plate tectonics are theories. The currently accepted theory of evolution is known as the modern evolutionary synthesis.

Q4: But isn't evolution unproven?

A4: Once again, this depends on how one is defining the terms proof and proven. Proof has two meanings: in logic and mathematics, it refers to an argument or demonstration showing that a proposition is completely certain and logically necessary; in other uses, proof refers to the establishment and accumulation of experimental evidence to a degree at which it lends overwhelming support to a proposition. Therefore, a proven proposition in the mathematical sense is one which is formally known to be true, while a proven proposition in the more general sense is one which is widely held to be true because the evidence strongly indicates that this is so ("beyond all reasonable doubt", in legal language).

In the first sense, the whole of evolutionary theory is not proven with absolute certainty, but there are mathematical proofs in evolutionary theory. However, nothing in the natural sciences can be proven in the first sense: empirical claims such as those in science cannot ever be absolutely certain, because they always depend on a finite set of facts that have been studied relative to the unproven assumptions of things stirring in the infinite complexity of the world around us. Evolutionary science pushes the threshold of discovery into the unknown. To call evolution "unproven" in this sense is technically correct, but meaningless, because propositions like "the Earth revolves around the Sun" and even "the Earth exists" are equally unproven. Absolute proof is only possible for a priori propositions like "1 + 1 = 2" or "all bachelors are unmarried men", which do not depend on any experience or evidence, but rather on definition.

In the second sense, on the other hand, evolutionary theory is indeed "proven". This is because evolution is extremely well supported by the evidence, has made testable confirmed predictions, etc. For more information, see Evidence of evolution.

Q5: Has evolution ever been observed?

A5: Evolution, as a fact, is the gradual change in forms of life over several billion years. In contrast, the field of evolutionary biology is less than 200 years old. So it is not surprising that scientists did not directly observe, for example, the gradual change over tens of millions of years of land mammals to whales.^[3] However, there are other ways to "observe" evolution in action.

Scientists have directly observed and tested small changes in forms of life in laboratories, particularly in organisms that breed rapidly, such as bacteria and fruit flies.^[4] A famous experiment was developed in 1992 that traced bacterial evolution with precision in a lab. This experiment has subsequently been used to test the accuracy and robustness of methods used in reconstructing the evolutionary history of other organisms with great success.^[5]^[6] Evolution has also been observed in the field, such as in the plant Oenothera lamarckiana which gave rise to the new species Oenothera gigas,^[7] in the Italian Wall Lizard,^[8] and in Darwin's finches.^[9]

Scientists have observed significant changes in forms of life in the fossil record. From these direct observations scientists have been able to make inferences regarding the evolutionary history of life. Such inferences are also common to all fields of science. For example, the neutron has never been observed, but all the available data supports the neutron model.

The inferences upon which evolution is based have been tested by the study of more recently discovered fossils, the science of genetics, and other methods. For example, critics once challenged the inference that land mammals evolved into whales. However, later fossil discoveries illustrated the pathway of whale evolution.^[3] So, although the entire evolutionary history of life has not been directly observed, all available data supports the fact of evolution.

Q6: Why is microevolution equated with macroevolution?

A6: The article doesn't equate the two, but merely recognizes that they are largely or entirely the same process, just on different timescales. The great majority of modern evolutionary biologists consider macroevolution to simply be microevolution on a larger timescale; all fields of science accept that small ("micro") changes can accumulate to produce large ("macro") differences, given enough time. Most of the topics covered in the evolution article are basic enough to not require an appeal to the micro/macro distinction. Consequently, the two terms are not equated, but simply not dealt with much.

A more nuanced version of the claim that evolution has never been observed is to claim that microevolution has been directly observed, while macroevolution has not. However, that is not the case, as speciations, which are generally seen as the benchmark for macroevolution, have been observed in a number of instances.

Q7: What about the scientific evidence against evolution?

A7: To be frank, there isn't any. Most claimed "evidence against evolution" is either a distortion of the actual facts of the matter, or an example of something that hasn't been explained yet. The former is erroneous, as it is based on incorrect claims. The latter, on the other hand, even when accurate, is irrelevant. The fact that not everything is fully understood doesn't make a certain proposition false; that is an example of the argument from ignorance logical fallacy. Examples of claimed evidence against evolution:

There aren't any transitional fossils, or there aren't enough.
There are many transitional fossils, including Archaeopteryx (earliest and most primitive bird known), Thrinaxodon (a cat-sized mammal-like "reptile"), Tiktaalik (fish with many features akin to those of four-legged animals), Acanthostega (first vertebrate animal to have recognizable limbs), and Ambulocetus (early whale that could walk as well as swim). See also List of transitional fossils. That there are not more is explained by the rarity of fossilization and by punctuated equilibrium. Furthermore, technically all fossils are transitional fossils, because no species is fixed and unchanging. For example, you can argue that Homo erectus is a transitional fossil between Homo sapiens and Homo habilis. But in the same line of thought, you can say Homo habilis is a transitional fossil between A. afarensis and Homo erectus, and so on.^[10]^[11]
Evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics, "the entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium".
Organisms are not isolated systems. Rather, they are open systems; they exchange energy with their environment, and thus their entropy can either increase or decrease. Specifically, the main fuel source for evolution is the Sun, which is continually adding energy to the Earth ecosystem. See also Entropy and life.^[12]^[13]
Evolution can't create "irreducibly complex" structures like the eye, or the bacterial flagellum.
Both the vertebrate eye and the bacterial flagellum are well understood to have evolved from simpler structures. Indeed, simpler eye-like structures (such as the sea squirt's ocellus) can still be found in existing species.^[14] Complex biological traits can also evolve as exaptations, where ancestral structures that evolved for different reasons become coopted for new functions. "Irreducible complexity" is, in any case, neither a scientific concept nor a coherent argument: A less than full understanding of the evolutionary history of a biological structure is not evidence against evolution, any more than a less than full understanding of the gravitational orbit of every astronomical body is evidence against gravity. The empirical evidence for evolution is substantial, whereas no evidence has ever been provided for irreducible complexity.^[15]^[16]
Evolution can't create new information.
New information is created every time a mutation occurs. Even random "noise" is a form of information. (This random information is then non-randomly propagated by natural selection.) Examples of the evolution of completely new information include the enzymes of nylon-eating bacteria, which can digest nylon, a polymer that didn't exist before 1935.^[17]^[18]

With regard to the Wikipedia Evolution article, if there is any evidence against evolution, it has yet to be accepted by any peer-reviewed scientific publication. This means that even if every editor on Wikipedia knew that there was evidence against evolution, we could not add that information to the article without violating Wikipedia's official policies of no original research and neutral point of view. Whether editors think that evolution has evidence against it or not is irrelevant; what matters are the noteworthy scientific views on this issue.

Q8: How could life arise by chance?

A8: If by "arise", one means "develop from non-organic matter through abiogenesis", then this is a question that is not answered by evolutionary theory. Evolution only deals with the development of pre-existing life, not with how that life first came to be. The fact that life evolves is not dependent upon the origin of life any more than the fact that objects gravitate towards other objects is dependent upon the Big Bang.

On the other hand, if by "arise" one means "evolve into the organisms alive today", then the simple answer is: it didn't. Evolution does not occur "by chance". Rather, evolution occurs through natural selection, which is a non-random process. Although mutation is random, natural selection favors mutations that have specific properties—the selection is therefore not random. Natural selection occurs because organisms with favored characteristics survive and reproduce more than ones without favored characteristics, and if these characteristics are heritable they will mechanically increase in frequency over generations. Although some evolutionary phenomena, such as genetic drift, are indeed random, these processes do not produce adaptations in organisms.

If the substance of this objection is that evolution seems implausible, that it's hard to imagine how life could develop by natural processes, then this is an invalid argument from ignorance. Something does not need to be intuitive or easy to grasp in order to be true.

See also

Past discussions

For further information, see the numerous past discussions on these topics in the archives of Talk:Evolution:

The article is not neutral. It doesn't mention that evolution is controversial.

The article should mention alternative views prominently, such as in a criticism section.

Evolution is just a theory, not a fact.

There is scientific evidence against evolution.

References

^ See List of scientific societies rejecting intelligent design.
^ As reported in Newsweek magazine, 29 June 1987, Page 23: "By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. Earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science..." See also Public beliefs about evolution and creation, Robinson, B. A. 1995. for a discussion on acceptance of evolution.
^ ^a ^b The Origin of Whales and the Power of Independent Evidence
^ Dobzhansky T, Pavlovsky O (1971). "An experimentally created incipient species of Drosophila". Nature. 230 (5292): 289–292. doi:10.1038/230289a0. PMID 5549403.
^ DM Hillis; JJ Bull; ME White; MR Badgett; IJ Molineux (1992). "Experimental phylogenetics: generation of a known phylogeny". Science. 255 (5044): 589–592. doi:10.1126/science.1736360. PMID 1736360.
^ Crandall, K. (1994). "Intraspecific cladogram estimation: Accuracy at higher levels of divergence" (PDF). Systematic Biology. 43 (2): 222–235.
^ Gates, Reginald Ruggles (September 1909). "The Behavior of the Chromosomes in Oenothera lata x O. gigas". Botanical Gazette. 48 (3): 179–199. doi:10.1086/329990. JSTOR 2467513.
^ Herrel, A.; Huyghe, K.; Vanhooydonck, B.; Backeljau, T.; Breugelmans, K.; Grbac, I.; Van Damme, R.; Irschick, D. J. (2008). "Rapid large-scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with exploitation of a different dietary resource". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (12): 4792–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.0711998105. PMC 2290806. PMID 18344323.
^ Cressey, Daniel (2009). "Darwin's finches tracked to reveal evolution in action". Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2009.1089.
^ Hunt, Kathleen (1997). Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ. TalkOrigins Archive.
^ Elsberry, Wesley R. (1998). Missing links still missing!?
^ Lambert, Frank (2002). "Disorder — A Cracked Crutch For Supporting Entropy Discussions". Journal of Chemical Education. 79: 187–192. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
^ Does Life On Earth Violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
^ Lamb, Trevor D.; Collin, Shaun P.; Pugh, Jr, Edward N. (2007), "Evolution of the vertebrate eye: opsins, photoreceptors, retina and eye cup", Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8: 960–976
^ Isaak, Mark (2005). Index to Creationist Claims, Claim CB200: Irreducible complexity. TalkOrigins Archive.
^ Robison, Keith (1996). Darwin's Black Box: Irreducible Complexity or Irreproducible Irreducibility?. TalkOrigins Archive.
^ Musgrave, Ian & Baldwin, Rich, et al (2005). Information Theory and Creationism. TalkOrigins Archive.
^ "Evolution and Information: The Nylon Bug". New Mexicans for Science and Reason.

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This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Susan Kruglinski (2006-07-02). "Map: Evolution Evolving". Discover (magazine).
Michael Booth (2007-04-30). "Grading Wikipedia". Denver Post.

WARNING: This is not the place to discuss any alleged controversy or opinion about evolution and its related subjects. This page is for discussing improvements to the article, which is about evolution (not creation science, not creationism, and not intelligent design to name a few), and what has been presented in peer-reviewed scientific literature about it. See Wikipedia:No original research and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Some common points of argument are addressed in the FAQ below, which represents the consensus of editors here. If you are interested in discussing or debating over evolution itself, you may want to visit talk.origins or elsewhere.

This article was reviewed by The Denver Post on April 30, 2007.
Comments: "good," even if "stylistic infelicities abound."; "a fine introduction"; "source list appropriate, and well-rounded." Please examine the findings.(Note - this review prompted the drive to bring the article back to FA.)
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Genetic hitchhiking

I suggest to remove the section "Genetic hitchhiking". It doesn't have much to do with evolution or its relevance for evolution is not discussed sufficiently. Also, 2 of the 3 cited references are of no or only marginal relevance to the subject. The section can be moved to a genetics page where it would be perfectly appropriate (provided that the references are fixed). Peteruetz (talk) 21:04, 7 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't agree. It has a lot to do with evolution, as it has the effect that evolution increases the prevalence of certain genes not because they in themselves have survival advantages, but because they are associated with genes that do. JamesBWatson (talk) 21:52, 20 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Fact versus theory of evolution

This article omits a point that is extremely important both for understanding scientific logic and for dealing with critics of evolution--the distinction between the observable FACT of evolution (species change and common descent, no longer in the least controversial) and the theory of evolution (a constantly shifting scientific consensus about the precise interrelated roles of natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, epigenetics, group selection, exaptation, punctuated equilibrium, and so fourth). What many (and I would hazard to say most) lay people don't clearly understand is that scientific controversies over details of theory have no bearing whatsoever on the rock bottom scientific consensus on the FACT of evolution. It is a simple fact that life evolves.

Granted there is a single good sentence in the introduction referring to the fact of evolution --"Biologists agree that descent with modification is one of the most reliably established facts in science"--but most lay people would read that to mean that a key part of the theory of evolution is factually true--i.e. the fact/theory distinction is never clarified. The point is: you can have a theory about what the facts are, and a theory about what caused the facts, and they are not at all the same thing. The facts are what actually happened: descent with modification. That broad fact has become incontrovertible, so theorizing about that fact is no longer relevant to science. We do have smaller controversies about the exact course of that common descent. The explanation for the facts is even more controversial, and keeps being challenged (in relatively small ways) as a necessary part of ongoing science.

It follows, not incidentally, that evidence for the fact of evolution is distinct from evidence for particular theories of evolution. Therefore it ought to be treated separately in your article. Granted that the fact of evolution was not fully accepted until a good explanatory theory came along, nevertheless the fact of evolution was emerging into scientific understanding well before the Darwin/Wallace theory came along. I think it a serious weakness of this article that it does not make that critical distinction, and also does not clearly separate evidence for the fact from evidence for specific theories.

Also not incidentally, once that distinction is made, most of the attacks on evolution made by creationists become obviously irrelevant. Scientific controversies over details of the theory have nothing to do with the fact that species were observably not created as is some 10,000 years ago.

Burressd (talk) 00:57, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Evolution as fact and theory. --97.87.108.13 (talk) 04:08, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I think it is impossible to have digressions on every possible question in every article. This particular article is already very large and digressions need to be handled in daughter articles.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 08:09, 21 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Just for clarification, have any of these questions actually been frequently asked? Or have they been written by an editor, who subsequently wrote a response to them? I'm just a little confused by a set of eight "rephrased" questions that have allegedly been asked frequently, even though there is no record of any one of them having been asked in the form in which it appears here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.38.56.84 (talk) 20:48, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The "Frequently Asked Questions" addresses concerns and or complaints brought up by creationists, trolls for Jesus and various well-intentioned editors who have been deceived by creationist anti-science misinformation. And yes, all of the questions actually have been brought up in this and related talkpages in numerous, numerous reiterations.

The FAQ section is very well written - worthy of good article status in itself. MFlet1 (talk) 13:57, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I am curious how you arrived this statement of fact: "All life on Earth is descended from a last universal ancestor that lived approximately 3.8 billion years ago". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.134.168.16 (talk • contribs) 17:41, 13 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Here: Last universal ancestor (plenty of sources) --NeilN ^{talk to me} 17:53, 13 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Suggested Introductory Sentence Change

I suggest changing the introductory sentence from what it is now to Evolution is "Change in the genetic composition of a population during successive generations, as a result of natural selection acting on the genetic variation among individuals, and resulting in the development of new species." I believe this a clearer definition of what Evolution actually is and reads easier.

I'd like to get a few opinions on this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RandomEditPro (talk • contribs) 17:03, 8 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This has been debated to death. I recommend that you take a look at the previous discussions in the archives, starting with #60. Regards. danielkueh (talk) 17:49, 8 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Is there anything I could contribute to this article that you would suggest? — Preceding unsigned comment added by RandomEditPro (talk • contribs) 23:20, 17 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

At the moment, nothing much that I can think of. However, there is always room for improvement. Again, I recommend going through the archives carefully. Many ideas have been forward, but few of them have actually been pursued. Perhaps you can have a look and see which areas can be improved. Alternatively, you can look at other pages on evolution (e.g., evolutionary biology) that need more improvement. Also, this page is often a target of individuals with little to no understanding of science. It would be helpful if you can put this page on your watchlist and guard against vandalism or unsourced changes to this articles. Thanks for your interest in helping to improve this article. danielkueh (talk) 17:55, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think there is insufficient evidence to make the absolute claim that "life evolved from a universal common ancestor 3.2 Billion years ago". This is debatable and should be precluded by "Some scientists believe" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.134.168.16 (talk) 01:26, 21 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your thoughts about anyone's beliefs are irrelevant, what published reliable source supports such an assessment as realistic consensus of peer reviewed science? . . dave souza, talk 08:04, 21 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Expanding the cultual and scientific response

Scientific response

Quote mining with no proposed article improvement

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

British zoologist and physiologist Gerald A. Kerkut wrote, “There is a theory which states that many living animals can be observed over the course of time to undergo changes so that new species are formed. This can be called the ‘Special Theory of Evolution’ and can be demonstrated in certain cases by experiments. On the other hand there is the theory that all the living forms in the world have arisen from a single source which itself came from an inorganic form. This theory can be called the ‘General Theory of Evolution’ and the evidence that supports it is not sufficiently strong to allow us to consider it as anything more than a working hypothesis. It is not clear whether the changes that bring about speciation are of the same nature as those that brought about the development of new phyla. The answer will be found in future experimental work and not by the dogmatic assertions that the General Theory of Evolution must be correct because there is nothing else that will satisfactorily take its place.”^[1]

British geologist Bernard Wood wrote,“There is a popular image of human evolution that you’ll find all over the place … On the left of the picture there’s an ape … On the right, a man … Between the two is a succession of figures that become ever more like humans … Our progress from ape to human looks so smooth, so tidy. It’s such a beguiling image that even the experts are loath to let it go. But it is an illusion.”^[2]

Ian Thompson said, "Darwin’s ominous book [Origin of Species] had been available in Bronn’s translation for two years. The German professional zoologists, botanists and geologists almost all regarded it [Darwin’s theory] as absolute nonsense. Agassiz, Geibel, Keferstein, and so many others, laughed until they were red in the face –."^[3] Ian Taylor wrote, "He (German biologist Ernst Haeckel) became Darwin’s chief European apostle proclaiming the Gospel of evolution with evangelistic fervor, not only to the university intelligentsia but to the common man by popular books and to the working classes by lectures in rented halls."^[4]

British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle said, "The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 naughts after it ... It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.” ^[5]

In the 19th century, only a minority of the scientific community accepted evolution as a fact. Many favored competing explanations. By the 21st century, a broad consensus seems to have developed in support of the theory.^[6]^[7] Concerning the consensus,Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, said in his lecture at California Institute of Technology^[8]: “I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had. “Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. “There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.”

This looks like an ill-assorted quote mine, hatted as no evident usefulness. . dave souza, talk 08:07, 21 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Cultural response

American philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote, “I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about human life, including everything about the human mind …. This is a somewhat ridiculous situation …. [I]t is just as irrational to be influenced in one’s beliefs by the hope that God does not exist as by the hope that God does exist.”^[9]

American writer Leon Wieseltier wrote, "Scientism is not the same thing as science. Science is a blessing, but scientism is a curse. Science, I mean what practicing scientists actually do, is acutely and admirably aware of its limits, and humbly admits to the provisional character of its conclusions; but scientism is dogmatic, and peddles certainties. It is always at the ready with the solution to every problem, because it believes that the solution to every problem is a scientific one, and so it gives scientific answers to non-scientific questions. Owing to its preference for totalistic explanation, scientism transforms science into an ideology, which is of course a betrayal of the experimental and empirical spirit."^[10]

Intercalate (talk) 01:03, 20 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This strikes me as entirely irrelevant. Who really cares what either of these people think? Especially Wieseltier. Dbrodbeck (talk) 01:07, 20 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Especially since Atheism and Scientism are entirely, nay, utterly irrelevant to the topic of Evolution(ary Biology), that is, when Creationists aren't trying to illegitimately and or inappropriately graft the former two into the latter in order to create strawmen turned manufactured crises of faith.--Mr Fink (talk) 01:52, 20 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I believe these quotes are general criticisms of a type of scientist, not science generally, and certainly not the theory of evolution specifically. There are probably articles on WP where they might be relevant.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 09:56, 20 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And they may be useful in the articles on those two authors. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:36, 20 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Response to removed paragraph

The text below in quotes, that I had inserted, was removed. It was previously removed with the comments Danielkueh (talk | contribs)‎ . . (171,960 bytes) (-1,463)‎ . . (Two issues: 1) Not too clear where editor was going with this. 2) Based on the names of the first two authors on one of the two cited sources, there appears to be WP:COI issues. Please discuss on talk page.) (undo | thank).

I apologize for doing an undo without taking it to a talk page as requested. I had not done an undo previously, and I see I was in error by not taking it to the talk page. I plan to do it properly if I see the need for an undo in the future with a request to take it to the talk page.

This is the paragraph in question: "One of the major unresolved problems in biology is the primary adaptive function of meiosis (and homologous recombination), which bears on the even larger problem of the adaptive function of sex in eukaryotes. One view is that meiosis evolved primarily as an adaptation for increasing genetic diversity.^[11]^[12] An alternative view is that meiosis is an adaptation primarily for promoting accurate DNA repair (by homologous recombination) in germ line DNA, and that increased diversity is a byproduct that may be useful in the long term.^[13]^[14] (See also Evolution of sexual reproduction)."

Issue 1 indicated "Not too clear where editor was going with this." It seemed reasonable to me to include, in an article on Evolution (subsection "Adaptation") to consider a widely recognized unresolved problem in this area, namely the adaptive function of sexual reproduction. My intent was not to discuss this issue in any detail, but rather to indicate the major alternative lines of reasoning relating to this aspect of evolution.

Issue 2 indicated "Based on the names of the first two authors on one of the two cited sources, there appears to be WP:COI issues." Although I have worked in this area, I have taken out the reference to my own work and replaced it with an independent authoritative reference to a review by Birdsell and Willis (Birdsell JA, Wills C (2003). The evolutionary origin and maintenance of sexual recombination: A review of contemporary models. Evolutionary Biology Series >> Evolutionary Biology, Vol. 33 pp. 27-137. MacIntyre, Ross J.; Clegg, Michael, T (Eds.), Springer. Hardcover ISBN 978-0306472619, ISBN 0306472619 Softcover ISBN 978-1-4419-3385-0). With respect to the citation to Horandl, 2013, my name is only mentioned as the editor of a volume titled "Meiosis" but I did not contribute to the paper by Horandl contained in this book (Elvira Hörandl (2013). Meiosis and the Paradox of Sex in Nature, Meiosis, C. Bernstein (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-1197-9, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/56542. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/meiosis/meiosis-and-the-paradox-of-sex-in-nature).

The paragraph that was removed is neutral and I think it is unbiased. I suggest that the paragraph be returned to the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bernstein0275 (talk • contribs) 02:05, 6 November 2013 (UTC) Bernstein0275 (talk) 02:10, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

^ http://ia600409.us.archive.org/23/items/implicationsofev00kerk/implicationsofev00kerk.pdf
^ Bernard Wood (prof. of human origins, George Washington Univ.), “Who are we?” New Scientist, 2366 (26 Oct. 2002), p. 44.
^ Bölsche, W., Haeckel — His life and work, (a favourable biography) p. 138, 1906, tr. Joseph McCabe (1867–1955, a vocal apostate and leading village-atheopath) Philadelphia, George W. Jacobs & Co. Publishers.
^ Ian Taylor, In the Minds of Men, TFE Publishing, Toronto, 1984, p. 184, who cites Peter Klemm, Der Ketzer von Jena, Urania Press, Leipzig, 1968.
^ http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/physicalscience/story/0,9836,541468,00.html
^ van Wyhe 2008
^ Bowler 2003, pp. 178–179, 338, 347
^ http://s8int.com/crichton.html
^ Nagel, Thomas, The Last Word, pp. 130–131, Oxford University Press, 1997.
^ www.newrepublic.com/article/113299/leon-wieseltier-commencement-speech-brandeis-university-2013
^ Otto SP, Gerstein AC. (2006). Why have sex? The population genetics of sex and recombination. Biochem Soc Trans 34(Pt 4):519-22. Review. PMID: 16856849
^ Agrawal AF. (2006). Evolution of sex: why do organisms shuffle their genotypes? Curr Biol 16(17):R696-704. Review. PMID: 16950096
^ Elvira Hörandl (2013). Meiosis and the Paradox of Sex in Nature, Meiosis, C. Bernstein (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-1197-9, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/56542. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/meiosis/meiosis-and-the-paradox-of-sex-in-nature
^ Birdsell JA, Wills C (2003). The evolutionary origin and maintenance of sexual recombination: A review of contemporary models. Evolutionary Biology Series >> Evolutionary Biology, Vol. 33 pp. 27-137. MacIntyre, Ross J.; Clegg, Michael, T (Eds.), Springer. Hardcover ISBN 978-0306472619, ISBN 0306472619 Softcover ISBN 978-1-4419-3385-0.

[1] See List of scientific societies rejecting intelligent design.

[2] As reported in Newsweek magazine, 29 June 1987, Page 23: "By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. Earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science..." See also Public beliefs about evolution and creation, Robinson, B. A. 1995. for a discussion on acceptance of evolution.

[OriginOfWhales-3] The Origin of Whales and the Power of Independent Evidence

[4] Dobzhansky T, Pavlovsky O (1971). "An experimentally created incipient species of Drosophila". Nature. 230 (5292): 289–292. doi:10.1038/230289a0. PMID 5549403.

[Hillis92-5] DM Hillis; JJ Bull; ME White; MR Badgett; IJ Molineux (1992). "Experimental phylogenetics: generation of a known phylogeny". Science. 255 (5044): 589–592. doi:10.1126/science.1736360. PMID 1736360.

[Crandall94-6] Crandall, K. (1994). "Intraspecific cladogram estimation: Accuracy at higher levels of divergence" (PDF). Systematic Biology. 43 (2): 222–235.

[7] Gates, Reginald Ruggles (September 1909). "The Behavior of the Chromosomes in Oenothera lata x O. gigas". Botanical Gazette. 48 (3): 179–199. doi:10.1086/329990. JSTOR 2467513.

[8] Herrel, A.; Huyghe, K.; Vanhooydonck, B.; Backeljau, T.; Breugelmans, K.; Grbac, I.; Van Damme, R.; Irschick, D. J. (2008). "Rapid large-scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with exploitation of a different dietary resource". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (12): 4792–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.0711998105. PMC 2290806. PMID 18344323.

[9] Cressey, Daniel (2009). "Darwin's finches tracked to reveal evolution in action". Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2009.1089.

[10] Hunt, Kathleen (1997). Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ. TalkOrigins Archive.

[11] Elsberry, Wesley R. (1998). Missing links still missing!?

[crutch-12] Lambert, Frank (2002). "Disorder — A Cracked Crutch For Supporting Entropy Discussions". Journal of Chemical Education. 79: 187–192. Retrieved 15 July 2015.

[13] Does Life On Earth Violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics?

[14] Lamb, Trevor D.; Collin, Shaun P.; Pugh, Jr, Edward N. (2007), "Evolution of the vertebrate eye: opsins, photoreceptors, retina and eye cup", Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8: 960–976

[15] Isaak, Mark (2005). Index to Creationist Claims, Claim CB200: Irreducible complexity. TalkOrigins Archive.

[16] Robison, Keith (1996). Darwin's Black Box: Irreducible Complexity or Irreproducible Irreducibility?. TalkOrigins Archive.

[17] Musgrave, Ian & Baldwin, Rich, et al (2005). Information Theory and Creationism. TalkOrigins Archive.

[18] "Evolution and Information: The Nylon Bug". New Mexicans for Science and Reason.

[19] ttp://ia600409.us.archive.org/23/items/implicationsofev00kerk/implicationsofev00kerk.pdf

[20] Bernard Wood (prof. of human origins, George Washington Univ.), “Who are we?” New Scientist, 2366 (26 Oct. 2002), p. 44.

[21] Bölsche, W., Haeckel — His life and work, (a favourable biography) p. 138, 1906, tr. Joseph McCabe (1867–1955, a vocal apostate and leading village-atheopath) Philadelphia, George W. Jacobs & Co. Publishers.

[22] Ian Taylor, In the Minds of Men, TFE Publishing, Toronto, 1984, p. 184, who cites Peter Klemm, Der Ketzer von Jena, Urania Press, Leipzig, 1968.

[23] ttp://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/physicalscience/story/0,9836,541468,00.html

[JvW-24] van Wyhe 2008

[b3847-25] Bowler 2003, pp. 178–179, 338, 347

[26] ttp://s8int.com/crichton.html

[27] Nagel, Thomas, The Last Word, pp. 130–131, Oxford University Press, 1997.

[28] www.newrepublic.com/article/113299/leon-wieseltier-commencement-speech-brandeis-university-2013

[29] Otto SP, Gerstein AC. (2006). Why have sex? The population genetics of sex and recombination. Biochem Soc Trans 34(Pt 4):519-22. Review. PMID: 16856849

[30] Agrawal AF. (2006). Evolution of sex: why do organisms shuffle their genotypes? Curr Biol 16(17):R696-704. Review. PMID: 16950096

[31] Elvira Hörandl (2013). Meiosis and the Paradox of Sex in Nature, Meiosis, C. Bernstein (Ed.), ISBN: 978-953-51-1197-9, InTech, DOI: 10.5772/56542. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/meiosis/meiosis-and-the-paradox-of-sex-in-nature

[Birdsell-32] Birdsell JA, Wills C (2003). The evolutionary origin and maintenance of sexual recombination: A review of contemporary models. Evolutionary Biology Series >> Evolutionary Biology, Vol. 33 pp. 27-137. MacIntyre, Ross J.; Clegg, Michael, T (Eds.), Springer. Hardcover ISBN 978-0306472619, ISBN 0306472619 Softcover ISBN 978-1-4419-3385-0.

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