Theodosius Dobzhansky once wrote that, "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." The truth of the matter is that evolution is the glue that holds natural science together. Evolution is not just a hunch or a guess. It is a scientific theory.

A scientific theory is defined as an explanation of hard fact. In this case, the fact being explained by evolution is the fossil record. Every fossil, every specimen and even our own DNA, all provide hard scientific evidence that supports the theory of evolution.

All that being said, scientific theories can never be proven, but they must be falsifiable. This is true for gravity the same way it is for any other theory or law. In the case of evolution, if dinosaurs and modern humans were suddenly found living together in the same prehistoric time period, then the theory would be thrown out, disproved.

For the purposes of this article I am going to work off of the definition of evolution provided by talkorigins.org: "Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations."

Irreducible Complexity

This particular argument is one of the most pervasive and complicated to understand in the pantheon of anti-evolution diatribe. Michael Behe, a professor at Lehigh University, decided that some organs in the body, such as the eye, are far too complex to be created by random chance because if one tiny part of the functioning whole is removed, the rest of the eye won't work. (If you want a more detailed explanation please visit this site: talkorigins.org.)

The fact of the matter is that this argument holds no weight in most well-respected scientific circles. Just because an organ is very complex and seemingly "intelligently designed" today doesn't mean that it wasn't a result of natural scientific processes. The professors teaching evolution and society (ecology and evolutionary biology or anthropology 305) provide a wonderful explanation of the scientific side of the argument.

Basically, forming complex structures like an eye can be analogous to constructing a building. Scaffolding is needed in order to hold up the building as it is being formed, but as the building becomes more and more independently supported, the scaffolding is no longer needed, so it is taken away. An eye, or any other complex structure, is evolved in the same way. It goes through different incarnations with other structures (the scaffolding) supporting its structure. But as the eye evolves to fit the environment further, those supportive structures are selected out of the population and the complex, fully functioning specialized structure becomes dominant within the gene pool.

Evolution vs. Religion

With the exception of a few rabble rousers (see: Richard Dawkins and Will Provine) most scientists (see: Stephen J. Gould) believe that religion and science are not working against one another. Gould proposed that religion and science occupy two separate but equal forms of study. In his eyes and now the eyes of the scientific population in general, science and religion are simply two different ways of explaining, defining and understanding the world.

The way I prefer to think of it is that religion and science are two sides of the same coin. Science answers the tangible questions: the who, what, when and where. But science cannot ever answer the why. The "why" is reserved for the realm of religion.

Science is only able to answer questions pertaining to the natural world, but the supernatural (i.e. God) cannot be disproved by scientific processes. As I stated above, scientific theories must have the potential to be proven false, but God and any other incarnation of a supreme creator or divine figure is not falsifiable. There is no natural test for the existence of a supreme creator. In truth, science does not comment on the possibility of a God, because there is no way to test it in the conventional and accepted scientific sense.

I hope this helped clear up any confusion on the topic of evolution. Thanks to everyone who posted on and read the forum. We'll have another one up in the next couple days. Keep the posts coming!

Is there anything about evolution you're dying to know that I didn't answer? Ask below.