Did you know that "devolution" is not a scientific concept?

Question

Many Muslims and Christians like to point to what they call "devolution" (like when whales turned from being land mammals with legs back to living in the oceans with flippers) as evidence against evolution. They think that evolution means improvement and that all evolution is in the direction of higher life-forms. This is not true, evolution merely means "change over time" and that change can be perceived by those who judge it to be positive or negative. Natural selection simply means that whatever changes are most adaptive to the current environment are more likely to survive. Any so called "devolution" is still evolution.

Answer 1

That notion that there's a "direction" to evolution is one of the most important ways that people confuse themselves on the topic. It's extremely hard for people to get past that idea.

Answer 2

Actually, devolution *does* exist and is exemplified by instances in which a living thing loses genetic information or otherwise changes into a less fit state (or, to use your words, a state which is not "adaptive to the current environment").

Of course, this is only true when one uses a definition of evolution like the one you use (namely, adaptive change). If someone uses the word "evolution" simply in the sense of "change", then forward or backward, adaptive or non-adaptive changes are all called evolution.

cheerio

Answer 3

Yes, I wouldn't even call that devolution. Whales and porpoises are among the most advanced animals on Earth, second only to humans (or are we second to them?) As Douglas Adams said in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", "...Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much... the wheel, New York, wars, and so on, whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely the dolphins believed themselves to be more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons."

If any species is devolving, it's us. We're becoming weaker and more sedentary as we become more dependent on technology.

Answer 4

nicely, easily it rather is. there are particular definable variations between races. case in point, a with no difficulty common one is that in basic terms those of African descent can get Sickle-cellular ailment. Now, do those variations warrant diverse medical care under the regulation? No, that's why equivalent secure practices under the regulation replaced into performed a at the same time as in the past. although, this equality replaced into destroyed via race-based regulations touching directly to "hate crimes" and Affirmative action. i'm afraid that the only thank you to end racism is to have each and every person extremely secure the two under the regulation, which might contain abolishing Affirmative action and ridding of the assumption of "hate crimes", at the same time as additionally ignoring people who create racial tensions on the two factors.

Answer 5

Those who use the term "devolution" in this context are probably the same ones who speak of "reverse discrimination," which is also an idiot's term. Evolution is evolution. Discrimination is discrimination.

Answer 6

No, in fact, devolution is primarily a piece of political terminology, referring to the transfer of federal power from a higher to a lower geographic level.

Answer 7

Thankyou, I was already aware of the definition of evolution. maybe some Christians use devolution to disprove evolution, but I am not one of them.

Answer 8

The term know thy enemy does apply here to me....I have never thought evolution as a threat to my spirituality, so I am very ignorant on the topic.

I said this last night to someone...I practice "blind faith" when it comes to science...I know the scientific process has rigorous scrutiny as to validity....I honest believe that scientists are not out to deceive the world. If I see a .05, that is good enough for me...

Answer 9

you mean entropy? entropy is not the same thing. i don't believe in devolution. i believe in entropy. the natural disorder of things. is there any evidence of devolution in the evolutionary theory? what would spark something to devolve? truly, in the sense of the word.

Answer 10

Where exactly is the question in that? The title? Did you know science is about observation? While microevolution can be witnessed (cross corn with corn and get a different kind of corn), macroevolution (cross corn with corn and get a watermelon) has never been observed. If science is about observation, and we can't observe macroevolution, is macroevolution science or just a belief?