Evolution: Origin of the theory and the Scopes-Monkey Trial
On last night's The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and Company introduced the debate between "Intelligent Design" and Evolution. Also, Ed Helms submitted a report about Dayton, TN, the home of the Scopes-Monkey trial.
The Origin of The Theory of Evolution
Charles Darwin is widely credited as the founding father of the evolution. He wasn't the first one to present the theory, but he was the first one to present the theory in a cohesive manner with evidence. Darwin grew up comfortably and spent his adolesence bouncing from medical school to seminary school and then finally to the HMS Beagle. Darwin was a naturalist. He studied nature and the creatures in it. He spent five years on the HMS Beagle collecting data and being seasick. He never acquired his sealegs, apparently. While on that ship, he visited the Galapagos Islands where he observed the speciation of finches.
Essence of his argument
1) Two Observations:
- From Malithus' "Essay on Population" - unencumbered and unchecked organisms multiply geometrically
- Numbers in a population remain constant
--> Deduction #1 Organisms are in a constant competition/struggle to survive
2) All living things vary
--> Deduction #2 Favorable characteristics allow organisms to survive and reproduce
3) Variations are heritable
--> Deduction #3 A population will gradually acquire favorable traits through heredity
Oddly enough, his theory was immediately accepted. Evolution, that is. Natural selection was still controversial (and, unfortunately, still is). What is the difference, you might ask? Well, evolution is defined as "descent with modification". Natural selection is the process or means of doing so. For many years, scientists debated whether modification occured in a particulate, ladder-like way (think X-Men), or in a blended way. It wasn't until the early 1900's that natural selection was re-evaluated and integrated into the entire evolution theory because it was during that time that Gregor Mendel's work with pea pods and genetic inheritence was rediscovered.
On the 100th anniversary of Darwin's 200-some page abstract "An Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle of Life", it was said "100 years without Darwin are enough".
The Scopes Monkey Trial
Forgive me, but it's been about ten years since I was taught this, so I had to augment my information with Wikipedia. All hail Wikipedia. Please refer to its article explaining the trial because it is one hundred times better than what I could summarize.
The Scopes Monkey trial took place in 1925 and concerned the Tennessee law called the Butler Act, stating that it was against the law to teach "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals". The teacher John T Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution.
Hmmm... sound frighteningly close to the reality of 2005?
The Origin of The Theory of Evolution
Charles Darwin is widely credited as the founding father of the evolution. He wasn't the first one to present the theory, but he was the first one to present the theory in a cohesive manner with evidence. Darwin grew up comfortably and spent his adolesence bouncing from medical school to seminary school and then finally to the HMS Beagle. Darwin was a naturalist. He studied nature and the creatures in it. He spent five years on the HMS Beagle collecting data and being seasick. He never acquired his sealegs, apparently. While on that ship, he visited the Galapagos Islands where he observed the speciation of finches.
Essence of his argument
1) Two Observations:
- From Malithus' "Essay on Population" - unencumbered and unchecked organisms multiply geometrically
- Numbers in a population remain constant
--> Deduction #1 Organisms are in a constant competition/struggle to survive
2) All living things vary
--> Deduction #2 Favorable characteristics allow organisms to survive and reproduce
3) Variations are heritable
--> Deduction #3 A population will gradually acquire favorable traits through heredity
Oddly enough, his theory was immediately accepted. Evolution, that is. Natural selection was still controversial (and, unfortunately, still is). What is the difference, you might ask? Well, evolution is defined as "descent with modification". Natural selection is the process or means of doing so. For many years, scientists debated whether modification occured in a particulate, ladder-like way (think X-Men), or in a blended way. It wasn't until the early 1900's that natural selection was re-evaluated and integrated into the entire evolution theory because it was during that time that Gregor Mendel's work with pea pods and genetic inheritence was rediscovered.
On the 100th anniversary of Darwin's 200-some page abstract "An Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle of Life", it was said "100 years without Darwin are enough".
The Scopes Monkey Trial
Forgive me, but it's been about ten years since I was taught this, so I had to augment my information with Wikipedia. All hail Wikipedia. Please refer to its article explaining the trial because it is one hundred times better than what I could summarize.
The Scopes Monkey trial took place in 1925 and concerned the Tennessee law called the Butler Act, stating that it was against the law to teach "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals". The teacher John T Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution.
Hmmm... sound frighteningly close to the reality of 2005?