I wanna talk about some of the common misconceptions a lot of people have about evolution.
Now, here's your disclaimer:
I am not a scientist,
but I do know how to read.
And I've studied evolution enough to know that most of the reasons people give for why they don't accept evolution
are based in their own ignorance.
They just don't understand it.
So let's talk about some of these things that they don't get.
If evolution is real, then why are there still monkeys?
Now, this is a silly question.
It's a sign that whoever you're talking to has absolutely no idea
how evolution actually works.
They're making two big mistakes:
First, they're under the assumption that the way evolution happens is one species
just morphs into another one.
Evolution isn't linear like that.
There's a famous picture you might be familiar with. It's called The March of Progress.
It's the one that shows a small primate getting taller, and taller, and taller
until it reaches us humans.
It's a horribly misleading drawing.
I mean, it's not like humans are the pinnacle of evolution.
And it's not like one species just turns into the next one and then dies off.
We are just one branch of a huge tree that is still growing.
Second, the people who complain that we come from monkeys,
are usually suggesting that we would therefore act like monkeys.
They think that if we come from monkeys, then we are wild, and uncivil, and hairy, and throwing feces everywhere!
They don't understand that humans actually have very developed brains and we don't just act on our animal instincts.
The truth is: humans and apes do share a common ancestor, a long time ago.
And that ancestor may look kind of similar to modern-day apes,
but they're not the same thing.
And if that's too complicated,
just think of it this way:
Protestants branched off from Catholics,
but there are still Catholics.
Are we still evolving today?
Can one species change into another?
I know it doesn't seem like it,
because is not like we have split into a new species or anything.
But we are evolving
in small ways that may eventually become something big.
Every living thing is always evolving.
But real change doesn't happen in a lifetime.
It takes thousands of generations to notice
and we may not even notice the changes happening as they're taking place.
Imagine for a second, if you took a picture of yourself
every day from the day you were born.
- Somehow you're a baby but you can handle cameras.
If you place all those pictures side by side,
and I took any two of them and, next to each other, and showed them to you,
you would not notice the difference.
But If I took one picture,
and then another one 10 years later, and showed them to you,
you would absolutely notice the difference.
Let's extrapolate that.
If I showed you pictures of two people who are one generation apart,
your dad and you,
you may not notice any big genetic differences.
But if I showed you pictures of people who are thousands of generations apart,
or hundreds of thousands of generations apart,
you would notice some big changes.
The problem with creationists
is that they think these sorts of evolutionary changes have to take place like that.
One species has to evolve into another within a lifetime.
It doesn't work like that.
And just to make things even more complicated,
some scientists have suggested
humans aren't evolving
as quickly as other species, or as quickly as we used to evolve,
because we now have ways of
opposing the whole survival of the fittest idea.
We have medicine and sanitation,
and we don't have to worry about being eaten alive every minute of the day.
But as long as people are still having babies,
there are genes being spread.
We may not know which ones will live on generations down the line,
but natural selection is happening, even if we can't perceive it.
Evolution is just a theory.
You may wanna bring out a dictionary to anyone who says this, because they clearly don't know the meaning of the word.
A good scientific theory has to explain everything we know
so far about a particular subject.
And the theory of evolution
is as powerful an explanation as we have about how we came to be.
It's as strong of a theory as we have about pretty much anything in the scientific world.
Think of it as a huge jigsaw puzzle with some pieces missing.
If you have enough of them,
you could still piece together what that final puzzle looks like,
even if there are maybe some holes in it.
Now, if I could find the counter example to evolution;
say I found the jigsaw puzzle piece
that absolutely could not fit in my puzzle,
I would have to start over again.
My whole theory would be shut.
And that's the way evolution works too.
But so far, with evolution,
we have not found that jigsaw piece that doesn't belong.
Not that some people haven't tried to poke holes in it.
You may have heard of the concept of irreducible complexity,
which is the idea that there are parts of our body
that could not possibly have evolved.
Now, if that's true...
Yeah, okay, we have a problem.
It turns out there are actually explanations for all of those supposedly irreducible things.
But the books promoting irreducible complexity were written by people who refuse to acknowledge that possibility.
Evolution is a theory
and that's precisely why it's so powerful.
There are no transitional fossils.
Creationists love to use this one.
They'll say if one species evolved into another,
then where is the in-between point?
Kirk Cameron, who seems to think ducks evolved into crocodiles,
even asked why we haven't seen a "crocoduck".
As if that's the missing link we've been searching for.
Here is where they get it wrong.
They're assuming that every species is gonna be preserved in the fossil record.
They're not.
We have to take the fossils we have and put them together in that big jigsaw puzzle of life.
Sometimes, depending on the environment,
evolution may occur more rapidly than it usually does.
And that means no fossils are preserved.
Every now and then, though, we do find transitional fossils.
You know, we knew about species A, we knew about species C,
and we hypothesize about species B.
And then, lo and behold, we actually discover fossils confirming species B.
It's great. It's a huge deal.
But it's never enough for creationists.
Because you know what they're gonna do.
They're just gonna say, "Well, where is the missing link between species A and species B?
Guess what.
All of us are transitional fossils.
Some of us just have the fortune,
or misfortune, of being preserved for a long time.
Evolution and religion are incompatible.
This is actually controversial.
There are some religious groups,
and some atheists, who believe the two can not coexist.
You can be a Christian who believes the Bible is literally true,
that God created Adam and Eve 6,000 years ago,
and also accept evolution.
That is something creationists Ken Ham, and atheist Dr. Jerry Cohen, both agree on.
It's probably one of the very few things they both agree on.
These two sides believe religion and science can't go together because there are just too many contradictions.
But plenty of religious groups
have found a way to make it work in their heads.
I mean, Catholics accept evolution.
Protestants, who agree that a lot of these Bible stories are indeed stories, accept evolution.
Now, many of them will say God started the whole process.
Or that God guides evolution through.
That's where they lose me, personally.
I mean, I think they're trying to rationalize a bad idea, religion;
with a good one, science.
And it just doesn't work for me.
If you're willing to admit evolution is true, then why do you have to throw God into the mix at all?
I think if you accept evolution, you have to go all the way.
God didn't create us and God doesn't play a role in the process.
And if God had nothing to do with your creation,
maybe it's time to ditch him for good.
But that's my opinion.
The fact is evolution is what it is.
If you wanna pretend that God plays a role in the process, you are welcome to do that.
A lot of smart people do.
You can't prove it, but you can think it.
And I will also add that a lot of smart people also think science and religion are completely irreconcilable.
So there you go.
I hope I didn't make any glaring mistakes in this video. I'm sure you will call me out if I did.
And if I can make one suggestion,
my favorite book to read on the subject, the one that really opened my eyes to how evolution works,
is "The Ancestor's Tale" by Richard Dawkins. It's just a really well-written book
that really helps you understand how all of this works.
It's easy to read, and you don't really need any scientific background to make sense of it. I highly recommend it.
My name is Hemant Mehta, and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
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