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Adult “belief” In Evolution (Aug. 11, 2005 Science) “Scientific principles, of course, are not reached through opinion polls. But the climate of public opinion about evolution strongly affects science education at the secondary level and all political and social discourse on evolution---a topic scientifically well accepted but politically and socially still highly controversial.” ---Kendrick Frazier, former editor of Science News and currently editor of Skeptical Inquirer “Belief” in Evolution by Partisanship Gallup Poll “Belief” in Evolution by Church Attendance Gallup Poll 10 Myths About Evolution • • • • • Humans Evolved From Monkeys. Humans and great apes had a common ancestor about 5-7 million years ago. Humans and monkeys had a common ancestor about 50 million years ago. It’s Only A Theory. In the field of science, “theory” does not mean “hypothesis” or “guess”. “Theory” means an organized set of related ideas supported by numerous experiments over a long period of time. A theory that hasn’t been confirmed is a hypothesis. If Nobody Saw It, We Can’t Be Sure It Happened. If your house is trashed and your TV and stereo is missing, will you hesitate to call the police because nobody saw it happen? Would you want the judge to dismiss the case just because you only had forensic evidence, but no witnesses? The evidence for the process of evolution is overwhelming. In nearly 150 years, not one scientific investigation has demonstrated evidence that evolution has or does not occur. Science Can’t Say Anything About Origins. Maybe not. But once the origin happens, everything after that is history. And historical evidence is preserved in the physical record. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey won the Nobel Prize in 1978 for their discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, evidence of the Big Bang nearly 12.5 billion years ago. Biologists “Believe” In Evolution. Science is not based on “belief”. Evolution provides a model for scientists to understand the relationships between organisms on the planet. 99% of all scientists ascribe to it’s tenants. Science is not about belief-it is about making inferences based on evidence. • • • • • 10 Myths About Evolution There Are No Intermediate Fossil Forms. Archaeopteryx, the earliest known fossil bird (although more recent finds may be earlier) has a thoroughly reptilian skeleton with a bony tail, teeth, and four paws with jointed fingers (not merely horns like today’s birds). And it has feathers. If that’s not intermediate, what is? More recently, there is accumulating evidence that some dinosaurs had hair and feathers. Evolution is Not Testable. Evolution is observable and testable. The misconception here is that science is limited to controlled experiments that are conducted in laboratories by people in white lab coats. Actually, much of science is accomplished by gathering evidence from the real world and inferring how things work. Astronomers cannot hold stars in their hands and geologists cannot go back in time, but in both cases scientists can learn a great deal by using multiple lines of evidence to make valid and useful inferences about their objects of study. The same is true of the study of the evolutionary history of life on Earth, and as a matter of fact, many mechanisms of evolution are studied through direct experimentation as in more familiar sciences. Evolution Means Humans Are Just Animals. Well, what are you then? Vegetable or mineral? Humans have hair and nurse their young just like other mammals. Trails like nurturing, cooperation and monogamy are often favored by evolution because they enhance the survival of the species. Evolution Is Just Random. Is the following number sequence random: 5626535897932384626433383279? It not only looks random: it is random. But is it lacking in meaning? No. These are the digits of pi beginning with the fourth decimal place. Random does not mean “meaningless”. Complexity Cannot Arise Naturally. Since many complex traits seem to be adaptive, they are likely to have evolved in small steps through natural selection. That is, intermediate forms of the adaptation must have evolved before evolution arrived at a fully-fledged wing, chemical pathway, or eye.