Yay educational Friday?

So, When I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about in this blog, I had the choice between the fact that most of everything in the universe is made up of just empty space and the only thing stopping people from walking through walls and floors is the fact that electrons repel other electrons.... and evolution. I flipped a coin and evolution won! So here we go...

So in this blog, I will be answering a 5 commonly asked questions about evolution. Sorry to all the people who already know this stuff, or don't care.

(1) "But isn't evolution just a theory?"

Yes, and no. Saying evolution is just a theory is like saying gravity is just a theory. There are two different typed of theories, and peopl

e often get them mixed up.

Definition 1: (Common usage of the term) hypothesis: a tentative insight into the natural world; a concept that is not yet verified but that if true would explain certain facts or phenomena.

Definition 2: (Scientific one, the one that 'The theory of evolution' applies to):an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena.

(2) If we evolved from apes, why are there still apes around?

We actually didn't evolve from the apes you see today! 5 to 8 million years ago, there was an ape-like species that we did e

volve form. Modern African monkeys and other apes and such evolved from that species as well. So some apes and monkeys we see today may share a common ancestor with humans.

(3) Is there still evolution happening now?

Yes! Every species (including humans) are still evolving. Macro evolution takes millions of years to occur, but we can see micro evolution all around us. One example of this is elephants! When African elephants were being hunted, hunters would kill the ones with the longest tusks since they were after the ivory. This made smaller tusked elephants less likely to be killed by hunters, and therefor more suitable to mate with. The small trunked gene would be passed on to the next generation and the large trunk gene wouldn't be since hunters were killing them. There are records that elephant trunk sizes have decreased significantly over the years.

Still skeptical? Well here is another example! Pre-industrial revolution in england, people used to collect moths. White moths were quite common since the trees the lived around were white. (The white wings of the moth provided the animal with greater camouflage) There were however, moths who, due to some recessive gene, had black wings. These moths were very rare and they were valued among the collectors. With the industrial revolution, came smog. The smog covered the trees and turned them black. Now the black moths were at an advantage and the white moths were screwed. The white moths were killed, the black ones survived, breed, and soon after the revolution, collectors started to value the white moths as rare since the black moths became very common.

(4) If evolution is true, and we are just evolved apes, what is the purpose of life?

Well if you're a theist, then your purpose in life is whatever your holy book tells you it is, but for me, the answer is simple, no. I say no not that there is no purpose to life, I say no because the question is illogical. We grow up in a world surround by purpose, chairs are made to sit on, tables to place things on, clothes to keep us warm and show our dominance in society, but what is the purpose of a rock, hurling through space? What is the purpose of a grain of sand on the beach? What is the purpose of a tree? To most of these questions, you should think that it is silly of me to asks, since the concept of purpose doesn't apply to those things. That is the same way I, and many others, feel about life.

(5)Doesn't evolution violate the second law of thermodynamics? After all, order cannot come from disorder.

No. The second law of thermodynamics only applies to closed systems, and earth is not a closed system. Sorry.

So yeah, these were just 5 of many questions I have heard, or found on the interwebs, on evolution. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed your posts.

DFTBA

-Colin