What is Evolution? Fact or Theory?

   


    Evolution can be explained in many ways. I remember my 8th-grade science teacher telling us to think of evolution as starting with a single microscopic organism that was the first living thing on earth and that over time it changed and evolved to become more complex and branched out into several different species and this continued giving us the greatly diverse life forms that we have today. A couple years ago I took a Vertebrate Zoology course and my professor had a different way of explaining what evolution was. He explained evolution as how animals adapt to their changing environment. So for me, evolution is a combination of those two ideas. I explain evolution as how living organisms adapt to a changing environment over generations and how these adaptations can lead to the formation of new subspecies. 

    I think that evolution can be both a fact and a theory depending on the context. In terms of bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics or humans influencing the evolution of domesticated animals' evolution would be considered a fact. However, evolution in terms of all current forms of life evolving from a single common ancestor would be a theory because without the existence of a time machine there is no way to observe this evolution or provide any definitive proof of its occurrence. 


Image credit: https://www.biologyonline.com/tutorials/genetics-and-evolution

Comments

  1. Maggie MalmbergFebruary 1, 2021 at 6:44 PM

    Hi Maddy!

    Thank you for sharing the two different definitions you had been taught! It is interesting to hear different teachers' perspectives. I also had a hard time choosing to label evolution as solely a fact or theory, so I appreciate that you went with both and clarified that it may be dependent on the context. Evolution can be seen on many different scales such as microevolution within a population or macroevolution over thousands of years. I feel like it is easier for us to observe microevolution in real time, so it becomes easier to accept as a fact. Whole lineages that change over time are almost impossible for us to observe and therefore cause more controversy. I personally decided to say that evolution was a theory, so that it is open for editing when new data is uncovered. Sometimes I wonder if there will be any major findings during our lifetime that help us know if all life today descended from a common ancestor. Maybe it will be one of life's great mysteries forever!

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  2. MichiFebruary 1, 2021 at 8:23 PM

    Well done, Maggie! I like how you applied some of the principles of critical thinking, having alternative definitions and viewpoints as well as accepting that fact and theory are perhaps just two different sides of the same coin.

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  3. Anna Nakamura-VinalFebruary 4, 2021 at 2:49 PM

    Hi Maddy!

    It's cool that you were taught two different views of evolution. While they're both pertaining to evolution as a whole, they look at it from different angles and I believe that is important in the process of learning. The more we learn about different views of the same subject, the better we can understand. If there's one thing we know, then that is evolution is a really complicated subject. So, the more views we know, the better!

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  4. Kyle WintersFebruary 10, 2021 at 2:41 PM

    Hi Maddy!
    I like how you can view Evolution as both fact and theory. I definitely think its a concept that everyone has a general idea as to what it is but don't know a single correct definition. I like your definition because you talked about how it takes place across different generations which we know to be true as well as how it can create subspecies.

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