What is the goal of Evolution?

Question

"If evolution were moving torward some perfect version of these creatures, they would hardly have developed, then lost, such a complex structure."

Can't one argue that these creatures are meeting a perfection since they are becoming well-suited to their environment? Then again, bats have an echolocation process which I'm sure birds from flat lands never had to begin with. That seems to be the caveat of Evolution--determining which structures are "lost" and what the original species possessed.

Answer 1

Hello,
I like your question, I am sure that a large percent of the population wonders the same thing. I am not going to pretend to be a genius on this, but here is how I am taking the “goal” of evolution.
As science increases in its understanding of how things "work" it is also increasing in questions of "why" and "for how long" these things have been. There were many times when a scientist examines a species of animal, a virus, or a bacteria they saw that they possessed a certain trait that they also saw in other life forms. When enough examples of some relation between ancient species and present species were collected, men like Darwin, and many other scientist made a hypothesis of the anomaly they were seeing day to day in their work in Zoology and Biology in order to make predictions on what they might find in species in the future and where species came from, from the past. Evolution is not saying that Creation did not happen, like the common rumor has it, evolution is not denying a possible God. All its' function is, is to make predictions on the anatomy and structure of the life we see today. Evolution theory is explaining many anomalies that were not described before this conjecture was hypothesized.
As an end note, evolution does not describe the function or purpose of life and for that our answers may lie in what cannot be see, in only what we can believe in.

Answer 2

Depends. Do you mean evolution the process, or evolution the conceptual construct?

Evolution as an idea has the same goal that all scientific theories do. That is, to provide a model of a certain aspect of the world that explains observed evidence and can be used to predict future occurrences, not yet observed. In evolution's case, what we seek to explain is the diversity of life, the similarities between seemingly disparate organisms, and the fact that species appear to change over time.

Please note that a theory, in scientific terminology, is a widely accepted explanation, as opposed to a hypothesis, which is a tentative idea -- non-scientists often think these two terms are equivalent because of the way 'theory' is used in everday English -- i.e. as something speculative, or unproven. Nothing could be further from the way a scientist uses the term.

Now if you're asking about the goal of the evolutionary process, there isn't one, unless it's to maintain the continuing existence of life in the face of perpetually changing conditions. A common misconception regarding evolution is that the adaptive process improves a species, which naturally leads to the idea that each organism has some ideal form which it is approaching incrementally. THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Organisms don't improve, per se, but change as their living conditions change. To illustrate my point, let me use an example of a particular organ, say, eyes (since I speak of illustration :).

Vision evolved in animals that spent a good portion of their lives being exposed to certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation -- light, in other words. Yet descendants of these organisms who moved to lightless environments -- such as caves -- have over time, lost their eyes. If evolution were moving torward some perfect version of these creatures, they would hardly have developed, then lost, such a complex structure. The fact that they have simply adapted to changing conditions is a much better explanation.

Answer 3

Evolution has not a goal. However, in an evolution, the species or organism replicating has to survive so that it can reproduce and multiply.

So, although evolution has no goals, it has a mechanism that rewards survival by retaining the species code and multiplying, increasing the number of organisms in the species.

Answer 4

If you are referring to human evolution, then it basically is a means of explaining how humans develop from one generation to the next. It offers an explanation of how good and bad traits are inherited through the transfer of genes. Also, it advances a theory that all humans have descended from a common ancestor.

Answer 5

Evolution doesn't really have a "goal", it just happens. Living things that adapt well to their environment tend to have more offspring, while those that don't adapt tend to die out. Sometimes you end up with oddities, like pandas that can only eat bamboo. And sometimes you end up with a species that's too successful for its own good (humans).

Answer 6

There is NO goal to evolution. Species become better adapted to their ecological niches over time. That's essentially what evolution is.

Answer 7

Evolution doesn't have a goal.
Those that reproduce more have their alleles represented more in the next generation. That's about it.

Answer 8

There is no real goal to evolution. it is just the natural mutations and selections that lead to new organisms.

Answer 9

Other than survival of life in some form or other, there IS no goal.

Answer 10

the evolution wants us to know the history of mankind(our kind)...It wants to show or explain to us in a scientific way where our species came from...