contact@onbelief.orgEvolution
"Evolutionary explanation extends well beyond biology to re-conceptualize culture and science itself."
From Daniel C. Dennett's bio page at 'The Edge'Definition of Evolution: Evolution is the sequential and accumulated change to a life form, inanimate object, technology, cultural practice or idea occurring over time.
Casual Observation
Casual inspection of the world during the course of an individual lifetime points to the importance of change in ourselves, in our society and our immediate surroundings. However in a more general sense there is a danger that we could easily come to believe that the world, on a more global scale, is largely invariant. Despite the fact that we mature, age and die those who replace us will be extremely similar. The mountains, seas, lakes, rivers and streams have been there as long as anyone can remember. The animals known by our great great grandfathers are the same. The sun the moon and the stars seem to be the same as they have always been. By casual observation it might therefore be argued that the world is largely the same as it has always been. In other words it seems easy and even natural to come to believe in a cosmos that is more or less static despite the minor perturbations that we observe around us an in ourselves. Indeed it is possible that this kind of static view of the world has prevailed from antiquity.
Evolution of Everything
Probably the greatest intellectual synthesis of human culture has been to take that easily arrived at static view of the world which we can observe in the short term and transform it to the magnificent edifice of evolutionary theories that we have today. Not only can we look at the world as it appears now but we can use evolutionary theory to understand its history. When we see sand and smooth pebbles on the beach we deduce erosion of rock. When we observe different types of mountains we think of folding of the earth's crust over an enormously long period of time. When we feel earthquakes we think of plate tectonics. When we find strange fossils in deep rock strata we think of biological extinction. When we find relatedness in animals either by shape or by biochemistry we see a communality of origin and deduce a branching diversity of life forms. When we hear commonly used words sounding very similar in different languages we think of a common linguistic origin from which today's languages have evolved over time. When we discover cultural differences on a wider scale we wonder how human culture has evolved its differences. And more recently with the advent of powerful astronomical telescopes operating at many wavelengths we realise it is not just our immediate surroundings that are changing. We find evidence of stars exploding into supernovae. Through spectroscopic analysis of radiation from space we come to interpret that the red shift in starlight as a dilation of the whole of the space-time continuum in which we feeble humans are embedded. We appear to see evidence of evolution at almost every level of existence that we can analyse. We even hypothesize that the heavy atoms that are present in our own bodies were formed though the formation and explosion of previously existing stars in one of the processes known as nucleosynthesis. Indeed we now believe that everything in the present day universe has evolved from a different state of organization in the past. Thinking in this way has now become so part of scientific culture that the title of Theodosius Dobzhansky's 1973 essay "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution " seems the only sensible way to look at the world.
Evolution in Culture
The philosophical concept of evolution not only explains our biology but now completely permeates our understanding of the physical world and human culture. Without the concept of evolution our understanding of the world and human activity and world history would be greatly impoverished. Where there is some form of semi-stable heritability in any aspect of our culture we have the the possibility of inheritance with change. Over many iterations and human generations our language, science, technology, mathematics, music, art, law and politics change. Specializations and elaborations appear in a fashion analogous to that of evolution of the natural world. This is simply because we are part of the natural world and not in any way divorced from it by our consciousness.
The evolutionary paradigm is an exceptionally valuable analytical tool in understanding our culture. Using this way of thinking we should examine the evolutionary 'payoffs' of particular human practices. The journalist Kevin Kelly, when discussing the evolution of human technology in a rather unusual way at TED, compares technology with life. He argues as with life we should examine its ubiquity, diversity, specialization, complexity and socialization. He then asks us to look at technology and ask what are the differences, diversity, options, choices, opportunities, possibilities and freedoms that it creates during its evolution.
Evolution of Music
In music we see a particularly useful application of the evolutionary paradigm applied to culture. It is useful to think of music as having evolved as well as musical ability evolving in humans. The two are of course are interrelated. William Benson has argued as follows:
"In Rank 1 culture (preliterate) music evolves through control over rhythm. Rank 2 culture (literacy) gains control over melodic structure while Rank 3 culture (Renaissance and after) adds harmonic elaboration to rhythm and melody. Within the twentieth century jazz has followed a similar course, with rhythmic elaboration coming first with traditional jazz, then melodic control emerging with swing, and harmonic control with bop. Both classical and jazz have much music straining beyond the limits of Rank 3 harmonic control, but no clear Rank 4 forms have yet evolved."
We see how time, geographical isolation and the co-evolution of technology produces variation. Think of how black slave music evolved into the blues and traditional jazz and how that in turn gave rise to the rock band and modern jazz. Consider the difference between ancient Chinese and European opera as an example of how spatial isolation produces differences. The evolution of the orchestra has occurred over time as new instruments such as the clarinet were invented in an analogous fashion to the evolution of new proteins appearing in evolving cells.
At a technology level think of how the stringed instruments evolved into keyboard instruments starting with the development of the lyre and harp played in ancient Egypt and Greece. These instruments it is speculated may themselves have evolved from the hunter's bow, which when plucked, gave rise a melodic sound. One evolutionary branch of the harp became the large orchestral harp of today with its forepillar and another became the medieval harpsichord. The related Clavichord evolved to be a calvinet. With the invention of the Fortepiano the musical pitch range increased from 4 octaves to 5 and 6 so that the modern piano of the 19th century had seven and a half octaves. Through the parallel evolution of technology in the form of electronics the modern digital piano of today was invented. Consider too the parallel evolution of the pipe organ from ancient Greece until we reach the whale-like proportions of the cathedral organ until they too are digitized and evolve to a smaller form. (Cathedrals themselves are themselves the product of a long evolution from Roman public buildings). The organ has of course been subject to diverse forms of evolution so that we see the appearance of the reed organ, the electric Hammond organ and finally the digital organ and keyboard of today. One evolutionary branch of the reed organ has shrunk to the harmonica which itself has assumed a variety of sizes, shapes and functions. [For more reading on music and evolution see: The evolution of music, and Human evolution: Why music? ]
The similarities between human sound production by mechanical means can then be compared to the diverse production of sound by animals which has given us bird song, whale song and echolocation.
Watch a very short video of Carl Saagn discussing biological evolution
Biological Evolution
Unlike creationism biological evolution is an observationally rich theory of change involving many disciplines (as demonstrated by the diverse list of Wikipedia articles on or related to biological evolution given below). Biological evolutionary theory is now very much more than the idea of natural selection. Evolutionary theory, unlike biological creationism or reincarnation, is not simply the imaginings of some ancient sage with no observational basis. Evolutionary theory is by contrast a composite theory consisting of a large body of ideas based on a wide range of observations. Anyone wishing to learn some important evolutionary principles could use the list of short articles below. Those who are 'deniers' of biological evolution might benefit even more from reading such material.
Important philosophical and practical points concerning biological evolution
1) The energetic driving force for life and therefore biological evolution is the energy emitted as radiation from the sun and deriving from geochemical processes that stretch back to the formation of the earth.
2) The origin of life is not presently understood with any degree of refinement. It is important, in this context, to distinguish between a) pre-biotic chemical evolution that gave rise to life and b) the generation of biodiversity amongst existing life forms by the processes of mutation and natural selection. Understanding in detail how the first self-replicating biological systems came about is probably the hardest and most complex problem in science today. (To produce a coherent story of how life came about we will need to see input and collaboration of physicists, chemists, geochemists, geologists, biochemists, geneticists, evolutionary biologists, mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists or in other words most of 'natural philosophy'.)
The Origin of Life Made Easy (for schools)
To see more from the same author click here >
3) Random inheritable change at a molecular level is the fundamental process of evolution. Non-inheritable change within individuals is an irrelevance in evolutionary terms. Stable inherited change comes about by changes in an organism's DNA within the germ cells. Genetic changes that occur in the rest of a person's body during their life time that do not produce inheritable differences.
4) The course of biological evolution is not random but selected for by the environment which includes pre-existing life forms.
5) There is probably some degree of inevitability in evolution given a particular environment. The evolution of biological optical sensors (eyes in our case) on a planet bathed by the sun's radiation confers such a strong advantage it seems difficult to imagine that if evolution were to be re-run from the beginning analogous structures would not come about again. It could be that given the evolution of multi-cellular life and the specialization of some cells towards a sensory function within the corpus, evolution of a large brain then became inevitable.
6) Evolution does not produce perfection or even optimization. It merely brings about a meta-stable configuration of life in a particular ecological niche.
7) The past history of evolution limits its future direction. Humans for example are much more likely to evolve larger brains than silicon based wing structures.
8) Developments occurred in evolution that were so complex and so advantageous that they have only happened once. The evolution of mitosis and meiosis in eukaryotic evolution are good examples.
9) Evolution is largely driven by the re-purposing, adaptation and amplification of existing structures, developmental processes, genes and control molecules (transcription factors, micro RNA's and DNA control sequences) rather than the de novo formation of entirely new characteristics. The adaptation and re-purposing of the Hox and Pax gene families for example over hundreds of million of years has constantly driven the development of new body plans in species as widely separated as flies and humans.
Pax genes seem to have been very important in the evolution of the eye and are considered to be master controllers in that regard. Tripedalia cystophora, a cubomedusan jellyfish possesses complex ocelli (eyes) and a Pax B gene that has a very similar function in development to the equivalent gene (ororthologue) found in humans and fruit flies (for more information click here .) This evidence suggests that genetic controls required to begin the evolution of eyes were only 'invented' once in evolution and then refined over hundreds of millions of years into the various forms that can be found today.
The bacterial flagellum is an interesting example of how the co-evolution of proteins gave rise to a functional structures (see http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/flagellum.html,) despite the absurd claims of 'intelligent design'.
10) In genetic terms many of the largest groupings of life forms share a very surprising degree of similarity. For example it is very useful as a first approximation for us to think of ourselves as giant largely-hairless mice, for we have a great deal of genetic similarity to rodents.
11) Evolution should not be thought of as advancement merely as change, the development of specialization and the acquirement of biological complexity as a response to selection pressure. Bacteria have all the equipment required for reproduction. As multi-cellular organisms we merely have a more complex way of going about the same task.
12) Sexual reproduction and genetic recombination means that we as individuals are not personally reproduced in a genetic sense. As individuals of a species we are, for the most part, irrelevant to evolution. Our only real significance as individuals is as the bearer of new mutations through founder effects on the population and as corporeal conduits of those mutations into the gene pool.
A newsworthy example of such mutations might be those that confer resistance to HIV infection in the human population. The chemokine receptor 5 protein for example which is in part responsible for the entry of the HIV virus into cells is present in some people in a form caused by a deletion mutation in the CCR5 gene called CCR5-delta 32. People carrying this gene are more resistant to HIV infection. One individual would have been responsible for the introduction of this gene into the human population. In that sense he or she might prove to be of importance in human evolution. Interestingly the reason why this gene has currently survived in the human population does not seem to be related to HIV and is more likely to be as a result of its effect on other human infections that have proved very deadly in the past. (for further reading click here > )
13) Using a reductionist approach we can identify evolutionary changes within individual species over time. We also need to take a wider view and realise that the co-evolution of different species and the environment itself shapes biological evolution as a whole.
14) The The concept of evolution did not start with Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. The wikipedia article on this subject (given below) points to a long history of related ideas. These naturalist distinguished themselves however by providing a detailed observational basis for their ideas which is the starting point and therefore a pre-requisite of all good science.
The Deniers
Sadly it would seem that there are many who choose intellectual impoverishment for reasons of literalist religious interpretation. Attitudinal surveys amongst biology and medical students at the University of Glasgow, here in Scotland, by Prof. Downie indicate that even amongst biology students there is small minority who deny the validity of evolution. Fortunately his data also suggest that as the students become more educated they show a moderation of this error. Of course there are more sophisticated evolution deniers. However even they are not supported by some of the more educated theologists. Perhaps the views of the latter are influenced by St Augustine of Hippo who, in the 4th century, saw the need for people not to make fools of themselves. (Click here for a biography of Augustine)
In view of the vast wealth of evidence that supports the concept of biological evolution it is palpably ridiculous that even today we have a combination of the obstinate and the ignorant who cling to a scenario of young earth creationism. They fail to realise that it is only with the concept of biological evolution we can propose a self-contained mechanistic explanation of how the diversity of life that we observe today came about. By maintaining a cosmology of the iron age they deny the most fundamental intellectual achievement of our culture, which has led us to such a mechanistically rich view of the world and our very existence. By switching from claims of immutable truth encompassed by ideas prevalent in the distant past to an ever changing vista of intellectual opportunities brought about by an expansionist view of belief change through evolution, we enrich our lives.
There are of course more scholarly deniers who use more sophisticated reasons such as "irreducible complexity" which is nothing more than an example of the logical fallacy of the argument from ignorance.
Ironically the deniers serve a useful role for science is strengthened by a challenges to ideas. In the videos embedded in this page you will see how educators now tell a much more cohesive and carefully thought out story as a consequence of having to deal with the child-like objections of the deniers.
Online Articles on Biological Evolution
1) Evolution 101 at the University of Berkley's Understanding Evolution
2) Introduction to Evolutionary Biology at Talk Origins
3) PBS Evolution for Teachers and Students
4) Evolution News of research from ScienceDaily.com
5) The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online - University of Cambridge
6) Darwin@LSE
7) "Vatican astronomer says creationism is superstition"Wikipedia Articles on Biological Evolution
Even scanning the title of these articles should let the doubters see what a complex idea evolution really is.
How did life begin? Origin of life, Abiogenesis, RNA world hypothesis; Autocatalytic set; Panspermia; List of molecules in interstellar space
History: History of evolutionary thought, Transmutation of species
Fundamental ideas: Evolution (disambiguation), Introduction to evolution; Evolution, Evolution From Simple English Wikipedia, Natural selection, Common descent, Most recent common ancestor, Last Universal Common Ancestor, Time Line of Evolution, Evolutionary history of life, Evidence of common descent
The formation of new species: Speciation, Allopatric speciation, Peripatric speciation, Parapatric speciation, Sympatric speciation, Hybrid speciation, Interspecific competition
Further ideas: Sexual selection, Stabilizing selection, Disruptive selection, Directional selection, Punctuated equilibrium, Extinction, Coextinction, Convergent evolution, Parallel evolution, Divergent evolution, Co-evolution, Evolvability, Evolution of complexity, Unit of Selection, Survival of the fittest, Fitness Landscapes, Evolutionary progress, Just-so story, Evolution as theory and fact
Darwin: Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin's education, Development of Darwin's theory, Darwin from Orchids to Variation, Second voyage of HMS Beagle, Inception of Darwin's theory, Publication of Darwin's theory, On the Origin of Species, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin's finches, Reaction to Darwin's theory, Modern evolutionary synthesis, On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection (By Wallace and Darwin)
The importance of fossils: Fossil, Trace fossils, Biostratigraphy, Paleobiology, Taphonomy, Paleontology, Stephen Jay Gould
Evolution of particular organism groups: Evolution by organism, Timeline of human evolution, Human evolution
Important genetic concepts: Mendelian inheritance, Gregor Johann Mendel, Hybrid (biological), Genetic recombination, Chromosomal crossover, Meiosis, Biological inheritance, Central dogma of molecular biology; Gene-centered view of evolution, Founder effects, Gene, Super Gene, Cline (population genetics), Horizontal gene transfer, Mutation, Mutation rate, Coalescent theory, Mutationism, Genetic drift, Mitochondrial Eve, Y-chromosomal Adam, Phenotype, Founder effect,Hardy-Weinberg principle
Evolutionary Biology: Evolutionary biology, Three-Domain System, Kingdom (biology), Scientific classification, Prehistoric life, Phylogenetic nomenclature, Cladistics, Phylogenetics, Phylogenetic tree, Evolutionary developmental biology, Endosymbiotic theory, Mitochondrion, Plastids, The Major Transitions in Evolution, Evolution of multicellularity, Evolution of sexual reproduction, The Ancestor's Tale
Global perspectives: Plate tectonics, Biodiversity, Gaia hypothesis
Wider considerations: Co-operation (evolution), Evolutionary ethics, Evolutionary psychology, Social evolutionism, Reciprocal altruism
Or Evolutionary biology a wikipedia listings page of specific articles
Videos About Biological Evolution
some less than 10 minutes and others just under 1 hour
The Theory of Evolution Made Easy
(in less than 10minutes)
Human Evolution Made Easy
(in 10 minutes)To see more from the same author click here >
'Human Ancestry Made Easy'
(in just over 9 minutes)
'Natural Selection'
(in just under 10 minutes)
'Evolutionary Game Theory'
A video of Robert Wright in discussion with John Maynard Smith (d.1984) on
PBS Evolution - Great Transformations
See how ideas about evolution change
PBS Evolution - Darwin's Dangerous Idea
in part a dramatised documentary
also an extended explanation of HIV evolution
PBS Evolution -Extinction
From the Discovery Channel:
The Greatest Discoveries Origin and Evolution
A very diverse film including shots of life from ocean vents
The Ape that Took Over the World
A video about human evolution
PBS Evolution: The Evolutionary Arms Race
Dawkins Makes an Eye
(in 2 and a half minutes)
On the Nature of Belief
www.onbelief.org
Scotland, 12th October 2007 and thereafter
Copyright 2007 onwards
