Prof. Brian Alters,
Tomlinson Project in University-Level Science Education
March 26, 2008
This lecture concerns biological evolution, which is "the descent, with modification, of different lineages from common ancestors.... All forms of life, from viruses to redwoods to humans, are related by unbroken chains of descent." Long before the celebrated nineteenth-century naturalist, Charles Darwin, the occurrence of evolution was already known by numerous scientists. What primarily distinguished Darwin from other scientists in this regard was his careful documentation of the occurrence of evolution, and most importantly, his proposition of a non-supernatural mechanism – natural selection.
So why should we learn evolution? Evolution is the context and unifying theory that underpins and permeates the biological sciences. There are just disparate facts in biology without the evolutionary tread that ties them together, and otherwise we would miss the answers to its unifying why questions. Without an understanding of evolution, we cannot understand processes based on this science, such as insect resistance to pesticides and microbial resistance to antibiotics. We will not come to understand evolutionary connections to other scientific fields, nor will we fully understand the world of which we are a part. Evolution is, in fact, one of the most important concepts in attaining scientific literacy.
Despite the occurrence of evolution being a modern scientific fact, tens-of-millions of people across the continent – including Canada – believe that the textbooks, teachers, and scientists are completely wrong about evolution (i.e., evolution did not, nor does, occur). The majority of our time in the lecture will be spent on the most doubted fundamental fact in science, and why so many people are evolution deniers.