Why Evolution Is True?

The book Your Inner Fish is an evolutionary narrative with information taken over more than 3.5 billion years. The book is divided into chapters by body parts and their refinements through evolution. Each body part is then examined extensively and shown how it relates back to what the book claims to be the common ancestor of humans; the fish. Readers will be able to learn about evolution in an easy to understand format and in a way that will make the reader rethink evolution.

At the beginning of his book “Your Inner Fish” Neil Shubin asks this question: “How can we visualize events that happened millions, and, in many cases, billions of years ago?” There were no eyewitnesses, Shubin says, no humans were around. The percentage of organisms that have been fossilized is very small and only certain species will ever be fossilized because of where they were located. However, this information did not intimidate Shubin on his hunt for his precious fish bones. Neil ties in the theory of evolution to explain how although life on Earth is widely diverse, all species have common ancestors. With the fish bones, he aimed to show how evolution caused one of the great transitions life has ever made- the transition from the ocean to land. Shubin, after six years, finds what he was looking for with the discovery of the fossil named Tiktaalik. This particular fossil is an intermediate between fish and primitive land-living animal.1

With a writing style that is enabled by an obvious adoration of the subject, Neil Shubin explores the predecessors of the human species in his book Your Inner Fish. Shubin draws upon his unique background as a paleontologist, embryologist, and geneticist to trace defining phenotypical traits that are inherent to humans to even the simplest of organisms. He delves into the difficult details of evolution that have long remained mysteries until recent years, specifically analyzing the transition from water to land, the rise of vision, basic body plans and scent. The magic of the book is that although these discoveries required the brightest minds of the past two centuries, Shubin unwraps them in a delightful manner that is interesting to both high school student and university professor. Your Inner Fish is meant to be persuasive, to educate and formulate opinions. By tracking these seeming complexities of human development, Shubin attempts to persuade a broad audience in the veracity of the common ancestor.

In the first chapter, Coyne discusses the basic concept outline of evolution, and brings clarity to the common misconceptions thought and said about how the science works, and the large misuse of the word theory. The first chapter of this book also defines very carefully each of the main hypothesis of evolutionary theory. Which stands in dissimilarity to many other treatments of evolution, which all have a propensity to confuse some readers by integrating different meanings of the word. Coyne also divides Darwinism into six components. They are: evolution which means change over time, gradualism which is a policy of slower change rather than sudden change or a revolution, speciation which is the evolutionary process where a new biological species

The late Stephen Jay Gould, a noted paleontologist who once described himself as an “agnostic leaning towards atheism,” wrote the classic treatise Evolution as Fact and Theory for Discover magazine back in 1981. His distinguished career and scientific achievements did earn him respect amongst his peers, but to the general public he is best known for his popular science writings and, to smaller circles, as a champion of evolution. As his treatise was written for a non-academic, science themed magazine, a basic understanding of science, and specifically evolutionary mechanics, was assumed of his audience. The treatise itself is on the often overlapping distinction between “theory” and “fact”; two words, he asserts, that creationists

In his book, Why Evolution is True, Coyne proposes five predictions of evolution and introduces the idea of retrodictions. Both his prediction of common ancestry in the fossil record and his retrodiction of vestigial structures can be observed through the lineage of the modern whale. Creationists can reject this prediction and retrodiction, yet there is enough information disprove their opinion. The history of whales provides a comprehensive fossil record that presents sufficient information to explain the prediction and retrodiction introduced by Coyne. It has been discovered that modern day whales can be traced back many generations, and each one can be considered a transitional form.

Why Evolution is True Book Review A majority of the population falls prey to the idea of creationism and its relative, intelligent design, however these concept's when mentioned lack substantial evidence. Darwin’s theory of evolution by which life on earth evolved by natural selection, is vast and contains a variety of splendid scientific validation. Jerry Coyne the author of “Why Evolution is True” explains that despite Darwin’s lack of knowledge on DNA and genetics his original theory as stated in “The Origin”, are the fundamental blocks for the modern theory of evolution. The topic of evolution when discussed evokes much emotion, this is because Holy literature not only has been the law of the land for centuries but also serves as a road

The Darwinian revolution marked a paradigm shift in science from which we have realized that it is possible there is an entirely different explanation for evolution than Paley initially asserted. Rather than the Paley’s dichotomy in which organisms were suited to their environments due to either random natural occurrences or intervention by a designer, Darwin pushed that there was a single explanation for why animals seem so perfectly fitted to their environments; survival of the fittest. The Darwinian revolution mostly supports Kuhn’s claim that the choice between paradigms cannot be made by either observation or logic. Paley argued passionately for design by God. Paley asserts that the organs and characteristics of organisms, as well as the fit of organisms to their environments are perfect.

Throughout history, there has been a major debate on the theory of evolution. Is it true? The term evolution has been defined many ways, and for the purpose of this paper, I will use the fourth definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. “Evolution is the descent with modification from preexisting species: cumulative inherited change in a population of organisms through time leading to the appearance of new forms: the process by which new species or populations of living things develop from preexisting forms through successive generations.” (Merriam-Webster, 2017) What does this mean and how could it possibly be true? In this paper, I will explain the different ideas

Chapter 7 revolves around beginnings of human research into the idea of evolution and an introduction of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. This chapter has given us, as students, more knowledge and insight into the topic of evolution. Since we were little kids, we always thought of evolution as the theory that establishes the link between humans and monkeys or that the phrase “Survival of the fittest” meant that the strongest always prevailed over the weak. However, this chapter has given us more detailed knowledge and background information about evolution, allowing us to lift these rumors and myths from our minds.

Evolution theory is not true because it gives a vague explanation of how the world developed to be what it is today and it also fails to explain why it is no longer going on today. As absurd as it is there are people in the world today who believe it majority of them being atheist.

Evolution is a change over time in species to adapt to new environments. Evolution has been a known fact now, but not all people believe in it. Some believe that evolution is a myth, or a lie. There is evidence that evolution is real.

Evolution is “the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth..”. Evolution can show how man, etc. have changed over time. Five things that prove evolution are, fossil records, embryology, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, and direct observation. With evidence to back them up, I will prove that these five things show evolution is real.

The second reason why evolution is false is that there is little evidence of transitional fossils in the fossil record. Even Darwin and other scientists have admitted the lack of evidence and fossils. For example, Stephen M. Stanley, an evolutionist, has made comments about this: “In fact, the fossil record does not convincingly document a single transition from one species to another” (Snyder, 44 Reasons Why Evolution Is Just A Fairy Tale For Adults). If evolution has happened, and is still in process today, then the world would be filled with species that are transitioning into another, instead, there are none alive today. To add to this, no human has ever witnessed macroevolution, so therefore, there is little proof and no possible record

Many people believe that Evolution is the creation of all living things that are from the past, present, and the future. In the textbook “Why Evolution is True” shows that there are many facts that make people question the theory of Evolution. The creation of humans is something that we all have opinions and beliefs about how it all began. The creation of all living things that now live on earth, it is the question that I will describe to all as I understand how Evolution has changed and affected all living creatures and humans around the world. A scientist who studies evolution started with the question as to how all living things on earth came into existence. Religion, on the other hand, believes that a supreme being started all creation.