What, in your opinion, is the most popular misconception of Evolution?

Answer 1

The most popular is that humans come FROM monkeys. That isn't anywhere near wahat Evolution says.

Answer 2

That creationists say that it implies that there is no God, which it never claims. It only claims that we MAY have come from a common ancestor. Another "favorite" is the mistaking of "abiogenesis" with evolution - they are separate concepts. Abiogenesis is the development of life from non-life, evolution is the change in a species over time until the changes become so great that an entirely new species is created. There is also the belief that there may have been only one pathway to life, but it is now known that there are actually several pathways to life, not just one. There are plenty of misconceptions about evolution, but as a SCIENTIFIC theory (which has greater "weight" than a common language use "theory"), evolution has been proven to be sound. There are, and probably always will be some gaps in the complete understanding, but an understanding of how DNA works makes evolution self-evident.

Answer 3

Even Darwin said that Evolution would be proven true in the future by the billions of yet undiscovered intermediate species (missing links) that would have to exist for evolution to work.
Update 2007: Theres a guy in China with a dremmel tool etching feathers on a lizard fossil and claiming to find the missing link from dinos to birds.
Evolution "Scientists" have committed so many frauds trying to prove evolution. (Piltdown Man, Nebraska Man ect.)They have no credibility with me and I am not all that religious.
For evolution to be true the missing links would have to be the overwhelming majority of the fossil record but instead they are either extremely rare or non existent.

Answer 4

The idea that humans evolved from monkeys or apes. Darwin's theory would have all descending from a common species, but differentiating from one another long before any evolved into a form recognizably similar to the modern species.

Answer 5

I don't know if it is the most popular but the biggest misconception is that it is opposing creation. When in reality both are true

Answer 6

I think that we have confused the word "evolution" with "evolution FROM one species TO another". Evolution does exist. We see it in our own bodies. We don't really use the appendix any more, but humans used to. We don't need our wisdom teeth anymore, but we used to. However, "Evolution" in the sense of a fish evolving into a bird is not logical. Evolution in the sense that we think Darwin wrote about simple doesn't exist.

Answer 7

that everything is aiming towards a particular state, and therefore that monkeys just havnt caught up yet.

WHY HAVE I GOT A THUMBS DOWN?
people think that evolution is "directed" and that humans are the pinnacle.

everything alive today is equally evolved, there is no "more evolved" or "better".

Answer 8

People think that evolution says that we came from monkeys. (When really we just have the same ancestor. Big difference).

Also, seeing Evolution as a threat to religion is a popular misconception.

Answer 9

That it is a proven fact. It is not.

Also, a big misconception is that all of the evidence points toward evolution. There is a lot of evidence that points the other way.

Finally, there is a misconception that all of the educated people believe in evolution. Not true!

Answer 10

The Missing Link

I always ask specifically what they think is missing and never get an answer. They just heard there was one somewhere and keep repeating it. Even though it is basically a 50-60's concept. I don't think they realize that we have found fossils in all that time.