If the Theory of Evolution did not exist, what scientific or technological breakthroughs would we not have?

Question

I'm currently trying to do some research work on the social impact of the Theory of Evolution, regarding scientific or technological breakthroughs that are a result of the Theory being published.

For example, I know for a fact that animal testing is done, because the Theory of Evolution states we all have a common ancestor and that the organs evolved fairly early on, so that there are still plenty of similarities between the species. If animal testing did not exist, drugs tests wouldn't really be done. (After all, the drugs would have to be tested directly on humans, and since the test subjects haven't been reassured of its relative safety, they wouldn't participate). Either that or it would be done on vagrabonds.

I'm particularly looking for any examples that would have changed the way our society developed.

Any links to sites that could help me gain an insight would be very welcome.

Creationist and ID answers are not welcome, as they never tell me anything I do not know already.

Answer 1

I don't follow your theory about animal testing and evolution. Scientists would soon realise that animal testing gave good predictions to effects on humans with or without the theory of evolution to back it up.

I'm sure before Darwin, someone gave a potentially poisonous plant to a dog before trying to eat it themself. That is a primitive form of animal testing.

Answer 2

This is a nice question. Thinking about it has provided a nice distraction from work :P

I think the animal testing may be a good example, actually.

The reason why it works is because of the common ancestry of mammals.

However, it should be pointed out that even without the acceptance of evolution and common ancestry, people may have tried animal testing anyhow, and found that it works. It's just that an acceptance of evolution provides a reason for why it works, and is not just a "wow, how fortunate for us that animal x reacts exactly the same way to medicine y as a human might".

Any fields involving genetics are strongly tied to evolution, but again I'm not sure that they wouldn't exist if scientists unifrmly thought that the world was 8000 years old and all life appeared exactly as it is and hasn't changed.

It would certainly make explaining an awful lot of things harder, like all of genetics (conservation of mechanisms-pathways-genes and differences in such). This conservation is hugely important for our understanding of almost all genetics and molecular biology. Imagine if all experiments had to be done on people. But again, we're back to the question of would people have tried stuff randomly w/o having a basis for it.

Maybe you consider it from a more circumspect point of view, if we all uniformly believed in the poof 8000 year old theory, how many scientists would even have ever been scientists or gone on to other fields? This of course would be pure conjecture and have no provable basis, but might be a clever attempt to demonstrate the insanity of arguing such facts.

I think it's worth including in your assignment that the theory of evolution has provided a guiding framework that helps provide direction for a lot of our science, by analogy more like a compass pointing us north than a road map telling us exactly where to go.

Of course, this is mostly useless for your assignment, but that happens sometimes :(

Answer 3

I don't fully agree with my collegues answer above on stratigraphy as I do a lot of work in biostratigraphy and it's really based on simple observation, there is little to no evolution interpretations involved (although it's always nice to see the evolution fall out in front of you). And the science of stratigraphy existed before the Origin of the Species. Which brings me to the point that I think it would be very difficult to not have some theory of evolution with the vast fossil record we have. But assuming we didn't...

I think the biological sciences would suffer the most. Things like vaccines, treating diseases and agricultural pests, developments in the plants and animals used agriculture, managing fisheries, conservation and etc. But also the social sciences, our understanding of ourselves - why we do things and how to help people and society. And these days, evolutionary principles are starting to be used more and more in design, letting the computers fight it out and do the work.

Berkeley has a good site on evolution and there is a link below:

Answer 4

In Geology we have the principle of uniformity.Mountains are the result of steady sedimentation over millions of years.Geological time periods are related to the type of life existing in that period.If you find a fossil of a particular type of organism or animal in a rock any where in the world,we broadly know the geological age as 500 or1000 or 1500 million years and so on.We can say this because we know that that life slowly evolved from simple to complex forms leading to humans.If we discard the theory of evolution,the entire science and system of stratigraphy crashes(Radioactive dating can be done only in few cases and paleontology is the only guide).Grand canyon of Colorado with layers upon layers of strata with fossils is almost a text book of geological and evolutionary processes.This will be just as a tourist attraction It is significant that all over the globe,evolution was similar.There was no divinely gifted piece of land where evolution was, say, a few million years faster.An ape is an ape in all the continents ( or peninsulas if we chose the geological term).So,a man is man everywhere.Similarities far outweigh the few differences like skin coloring,height etc.I think we are more ready to believe in this universality because of Darwin 's work.

Answer 5

Gravity isn't a fact. That's like saying a bird is a fact. Yes, birds exist, but they aren't facts. Theories are basically a conclusion based on a group of facts. But yes, because it is a theory, does not mean it is a guess. If something is a theory, that means it has yet to be proven false, not the other way around

Answer 6

Ah! Just the resplendence I was in the quest for! Your query soothes my utmost curiosity and therefore, my answer.

The theory still holds itself in unstable contradiction, therefore many dents can be seen in it as it is. The Theory bears itself back to the moment when time began, therefore it is full of debatable aspects. Yet it has LARGELY helped the scientific community.

The very conclusion of it from the expanding state of the universe brings us to the logically prior Big Bang. Were it not for that knowledge, we would be handicapped in many fields of astronomy, such as the knowledge of the positions of different celestial bodies after a given period of time. The atomic and wave formations at that instance enable us to conclude many theories in Physics as well. We would be balderdash without them.

Furthermore, the observations in the different forms of life-forms at different intervals of time forces one to enquire in sheer curiosity. These questions led to the knowledge of the geographical conditions at a particular instance in time. Such facts include that of Pangaea, formation of hydrosphere, ancient landscape, nurturing of life etc. This knowledge itself became a fundament for further discoveries in the Theory Of Evolution.

The biological and organic field would not have their arms either. 'Tis cause of the Theory that one truthfully states the mannerism in which the fruits, vegetables and green-buddies evolve under certain conditions.

Even the mineral knowledge bears itself in gratitude of the Theory, therefore enabling us the knowledge of its exhaustion rate and abuse that can result in its elimination.

The scientific community would be losing many of its mystical fields of study. Many of their theories would be incomplete and lose the colossal support of this Theory.

Logically, every single fragment of theoretical knowledge that we mortals bear of history holds itself responsible to the Theory, or the Theory bears itself in their gratitude. Put it anyway, its all the same. Not having this theory is practically impossible, and has a frail chance of existing, given that the humans, or any animal for that matter, do not have reasoning or concluding abilities. The comets and fossils speak for themselves. Yet considering that they STILL are unable to conclude such simple derivations, lets just say science wouldn't exist. (Nor would those astronomical or biological museums of ultimate boredom ;)

Answer 7

there would be a rather shocking abscence of pants, people would walk on their hands, and creationist theory would be correct.

Answer 8

tricky task. try searching on search engines like google. that can help!

Answer 9

evolution does not exist, but you know who does exists? God because he made the animals,people,plants and everything around us. Scientis are a bunch of liars