What is your definition of Evolution?

Question

I am asking people of all faiths ( or no faiths in origin and afterlife ) to describe what it is Evolution through natural selection is to them. Please do not answer "monkeys turning into humans" unless that really is all you know about it.
Please state your current religion ( or lack of ) and where you are from in general.

Im just asking because I think it will be interesting. So please dont answer me as if I have an agenda.

Answer 1

Granted there is already a definition but I will indulge you.

First off, I am Agnostic.

Ok... the way I conceptualize Evolution in my mind in my own words is...

Evolutions to me comprises two things, natural selection and genetic mutations.

You have a population of a million red bugs and they are constantly being hunted by a black bug that can easily spot the red bugs.

Suddenly due to mutation a red bug gives birth to mutated red bug that is less red...

over time the less red bug survives because the black bug can easily find and kill the red ones but has a more difficult time finding and eating the less red bugs...

over time more and more mutations occur that are favored for survival for lack of a better term.

As more and more of the red population is killed off and more and more of the less red survive... can you see how over time we could end up with a bug that may be a totally different color from red?

Answer 2

I am an Athiest, 22 years old, in WA

I will start by saying that I do not know everything about evolution, but it is the theory that is most viable to me. Evolution is the process of cell mutations and genetic mutations that randomly occur and are passed on in the DNA to offspring. The mutations that were helpful in survival were eventually the norm, stongest will survive. This helps to explain why all mammals, as a fetus, appear to have the same form. Human fetuses actually have a tail until about 10 weeks gestation. Anyway, I will give an example. Let's say we have a bird. A common insect eating bird. A strand of DNA randomly mutates, as has been know to happen, and this one offspring bird has better eyesight and can see in the dark. This bird will be able to see predators easier and find food in gloomy weather easier. This bird mates with a bird that has a DNA mutation to have a longer wingspan. The offspring will have better eyesight and longer wingspans. This, of course, occurs over hundreds of years to all different types of organsims. All animals, insects, and humans begins as a tiny little egg, and through the DNA of that egg, it forms into a horse, or squirrel, or the human being, the most advanced life form on our planet.

Answer 3

By definition: The change in the statistical representation of alleles in a population, ranging from 0% to 100%, inclusive.

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Jamie H. & skybelle: 'better' and 'worse' have no meaning what-so-ever in evolution. Evolution is not leading up to something. It is not a linear progression, it is a branching scenario, with no branch better or worse than any other branch.

Jamie H.: Further, there are no scientific laws. 'Law' means proven -- but science can prove nothing, and does not try. Science works by disproving things that are false, not by proving things that are true -- because we don't know WHAT is true. In my college physics book just five years ago, thermodynamics was (properly) refered to as the THEORY of Thermodynamics. Prior to Einstein, Newton's equations describing gravity were called the 'laws of gravity' ... but... we now know they were wrong, or rather, incomplete. Not much of a 'law' is it then?

Far from ignoring 2nd Principle of Thermodynamics... evolution wouldn't work without it. It's the 2nd Principle that makes computational structures possible in this universe, including DNA and your computer.

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iraqisax: You mention you're catholic. Do you realize that the Roman Catholic Church has declared evolution to be an adequate and accurate, if still developing, description of the process of how God created? Yes, the largest Christian church in the WORLD acknowledges formally the factualness of evolution as a process.

Answer 4

Biological evolution is the natural process by which species of living organisms change over time in order to remain well adapted for survival in a changing environment. Those which cannot adapt become extinct. Those which do adapt become anatomically and physiologically altered. When these differences accumulate sufficiently that the new organism is significantly different from the ancestral population it evolved from, a new species has been created.

Answer 5

What I uncover kind of humorous approximately MOST folks who say they take evolution as a truth, is that they don't desire to make a assertion that a few folks simply perhaps extra developed than others. That a few folks are additional alongside a direction to evolving clear of being an ape..... They say they suppose entirely in evolution however are not able to stand no longer being PC.

Answer 6

Agnostic.

Evolution is the development of a species due to survival traits. If the habitat of a species is affected by something, then the ones that will survive are those with the traits most likely to allow them to survive in the changed environment. This leads to certain parts of the genetic pool becoming more dominant, those parts that allow the survival traits. Fr instance, the smaller species of crocodiles are very much quicker over the ground than the huge 'salties' which are cannibals. It is now a trait of the small species to be quick as those who were not did not survive.

The result is that the those who are more adaptable survive and form the basis of the gene pool for future generations. This slow, very slow adaption of the gene pool eventually leads to the species changing. If there are two or more survival mechanisms, there will be two different gene pools which will lead to a divergence, eventually two species developing from one.

Answer 7

Evolution is ape to men you idiot. Religion however started as hope. Probably the tale of some hopeless fool who survived an ordeal back when men was young and just starting to discover himself. It happens in this day and age. Plane crash surviver discovers God. You believe it long enough you will give it a symbol. And when it starts to take shape you just might sell the idea to the dumb *** who lives next door to you. So with the entire village on side. This hope, this thought, this idea you drummed up now has a soul, a body, a face, and the most of all. A name. Hanging onto, reaching out, and giving hope to something symbolic is a beautifull thing and should be unique to each individual. Let one worship or sew their hopes and beliefs on the the one or many things they feel connected to. Riding big waves, martial arts, that special someone.....and the list goes on. That's how we should be left to EVOLVE. Natural selection is a power we now have through the evolution of our own technology. The ability to select is indeed in our hands. What would have been naturally selected has now been stratigically chosen. And the irony is the one who chooses to play god, indeed believes in a god.

Answer 8

The change of a species over time. It is like a branch on a tree. Sometimes one species mutates or dies out, and another form emerges, still leaving the original in existance or not. Evolution in these terms can't be denied.

Freethinker

Answer 9

My religion has no more bearing on my definiton of "Evolution" as it does on the definitions of "Prime numbers" or "Compounded Fracture".

My point is that despite the fact I do adhere to a particular religion, I leave science to the scientists just as I leave math to the mathematicians and medical terms to the medical community.

So for a biological term like "evolution", I go with what scientists say it is: http://talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-intro-to-biology.html

(And those who actually take the time to research the subject will realize that it doesn't say that species magically change from one to another, nor that everything is guided by "random chance")

Answer 10

I'm a Baptist.

I'm a Biology major and I believe evolution is the change of species over a period of time. I do believe in evolution. There is proof of it.

Contrary to many radicals' beliefs, evolution is NOT one species turning into another. It is simply one species adapting for better survival chances over a long period of time.