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view · edit Frequently asked questions Many of these questions are rephrased objections to evolution that users have argued should be included in the text of Evolution. The reason for their exclusion is discussed below. The main points of this FAQ can be summarized as: The process and theory of evolution are both uncontroversial among biologists. Misplaced Pages:Neutral point of view requires that minority views not be given undue emphasis. Therefore it is against Misplaced Pages policy for views without scientific support, such as all known objections to evolution, to be interjected into a science article like Evolution. More detail is given on each of these points, and other common questions and objections, below. To view the response to a question, click the link to the right of the question. Q1: Why won't you add criticisms or objections to evolution in the Evolution article? A1: This is essentially mandated by Misplaced Pages's official neutral point of view policy. This policy requires that articles treat views on various subjects proportionally to those views' mainstream acceptance in the appropriate academic field. For example, if two contradictory views in physics are held by roughly an equal number of physicists, then Misplaced Pages should give those views "equal time". On the other hand, if one view is held by 99% of physicists and the other by 1%, then Misplaced Pages should favor the former view throughout its physics articles; the latter view should receive little, if any, coverage. To do otherwise would require, for example, that we treat belief in a Flat Earth as being equal to other viewpoints on the figure of the Earth. Due to the enormous mainstream scientific consensus in support of modern evolutionary theory, and pursuant to Misplaced Pages's aforementioned policies, the Evolution article references evolution as an observable natural process and as the valid explanation for the diversity of life on Earth. Although there are indeed opposing views to evolution, such as Creationism, none of these views have any support in the relevant field (biology), and therefore Misplaced Pages cannot, and should not, treat these opposing views as being significant to the science of evolution. On the other hand, they may be very significant to sociological articles on the effects of evolutionary theory on religious and cultural beliefs; this is why sociological and historical articles such as Rejection of evolution by religious groups give major coverage to these opposing views, while biological articles such as Evolution do not. Further information: Misplaced Pages:Neutral point of view § Undue weight Q2: Evolution is controversial, so why won't you teach the controversy? A2: As noted above, evolution is at best only controversial in social areas like politics and religion. The fact that evolution occurs and the ability of modern evolutionary theory to explain why it occurs are not controversial amongst biologists. Indeed, numerous respectable scientific societies, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences, have issued statements supporting evolution and denouncing creationism and/or ID. In 1987 only about 0.15% of American Earth and life scientists supported creationism. Thus, as a consequence of Misplaced Pages's policies, it is necessary to treat evolution as mainstream scientific consensus treats it: an uncontroversial fact that has an uncontested and accurate explanation in evolutionary theory. There are no scientifically supported "alternatives" for this view. However, while the overall theory of evolution is not controversial in that it is the only widely-accepted scientific theory for the diversity of life on Earth, certain aspects of the theory are controversial or disputed in that there actually are significant disagreements regarding them among biologists. These lesser controversies, such as over the rate of evolution, the importance of various mechanisms such as the neutral theory of molecular evolution, or the relevance of the gene-centered view of evolution, are, in fact, covered extensively in Misplaced Pages's science articles. However, most are too technical to warrant a great deal of discussion on the top-level article Evolution. They are very different from the creation–evolution controversy, however, in that they amount to scientific disputes, not religious ones. Further information: Teach the Controversy and Level of support for evolution Q3: Why is evolution described as though it's a fact? Isn't evolution just a theory? A3: That depends on if you use the words evolution, theory, and fact in their scientific or their colloquial sense. Unfortunately, all of these words have at least two meanings. For example, evolution can either refer to an observed process (covered at evolution), or, as a shorthand for evolutionary theory, to the explanation for that process (covered at modern evolutionary synthesis). To avoid confusion between these two meanings, when the theory of evolution, rather than the process/fact of evolution, is being discussed, this will usually be noted by explicitly using the word theory. Evolution is not a theory in the sense used on Evolution; rather, it is a fact. This is because the word evolution is used here to refer to the observed process of the genetic composition of populations changing over successive generations. Because this is simply an observation, it is considered a fact. Fact has two different meanings: in colloquial usage, it refers to any well-supported proposition; in scientific usage, it refers to a confirmed observation. For example, in the scientific sense, "apples fall if you drop them" is a fact, but "apples fall if you drop them because of a curvature in spacetime" is a theory. Gravity can thus either refer to a fact (the observation that objects are attracted to each other) or a theory (general relativity, which is the explanation for this fact). Evolution is the same way. As a fact, evolution is an observed biological process; as a theory, it is the explanation for this process. What adds to this confusion is that the theory of evolution is also sometimes called a "fact", in the colloquial sense—that is, to emphasize how well supported it is. When evolution is shorthand for "evolutionary theory", evolution is indeed a theory. However, phrasing this as "just a theory" is misleading. Theory has two different meanings: in colloquial usage, it refers to a conjecture or guess; in scientific usage, it refers to a well-supported explanation or model for observed phenomena. Evolution is a theory in the latter sense, not in the former. Thus, it is a theory in the same sense that gravity and plate tectonics are theories. The currently accepted theory of evolution is known as the modern evolutionary synthesis. Further information: Evolution as fact and theory Q4: But isn't evolution unproven? A4: Once again, this depends on how one is defining the terms proof and proven. Proof has two meanings: in logic and mathematics, it refers to an argument or demonstration showing that a proposition is completely certain and logically necessary; in other uses, proof refers to the establishment and accumulation of experimental evidence to a degree at which it lends overwhelming support to a proposition. Therefore, a proven proposition in the mathematical sense is one which is formally known to be true, while a proven proposition in the more general sense is one which is widely held to be true because the evidence strongly indicates that this is so ("beyond all reasonable doubt", in legal language). In the first sense, the whole of evolutionary theory is not proven with absolute certainty, but there are mathematical proofs in evolutionary theory. However, nothing in the natural sciences can be proven in the first sense: empirical claims such as those in science cannot ever be absolutely certain, because they always depend on a finite set of facts that have been studied relative to the unproven assumptions of things stirring in the infinite complexity of the world around us. Evolutionary science pushes the threshold of discovery into the unknown. To call evolution "unproven" in this sense is technically correct, but meaningless, because propositions like "the Earth revolves around the Sun" and even "the Earth exists" are equally unproven. Absolute proof is only possible for a priori propositions like "1 + 1 = 2" or "all bachelors are unmarried men", which do not depend on any experience or evidence, but rather on definition. In the second sense, on the other hand, evolutionary theory is indeed "proven". This is because evolution is extremely well supported by the evidence, has made testable confirmed predictions, etc. For more information, see Evidence of evolution. Main article: Evidence of evolution Q5: Has evolution ever been observed? A5: Evolution, as a fact, is the gradual change in forms of life over several billion years. In contrast, the field of evolutionary biology is less than 200 years old. So it is not surprising that scientists did not directly observe, for example, the gradual change over tens of millions of years of land mammals to whales. However, there are other ways to "observe" evolution in action. Scientists have directly observed and tested small changes in forms of life in laboratories, particularly in organisms that breed rapidly, such as bacteria and fruit flies. A famous experiment was developed in 1992 that traced bacterial evolution with precision in a lab. This experiment has subsequently been used to test the accuracy and robustness of methods used in reconstructing the evolutionary history of other organisms with great success. Evolution has also been observed in the field, such as in the plant Oenothera lamarckiana which gave rise to the new species Oenothera gigas, in the Italian Wall Lizard, and in Darwin's finches. Scientists have observed significant changes in forms of life in the fossil record. From these direct observations scientists have been able to make inferences regarding the evolutionary history of life. Such inferences are also common to all fields of science. For example, the neutron has never been observed, but all the available data supports the neutron model. The inferences upon which evolution is based have been tested by the study of more recently discovered fossils, the science of genetics, and other methods. For example, critics once challenged the inference that land mammals evolved into whales. However, later fossil discoveries illustrated the pathway of whale evolution. So, although the entire evolutionary history of life has not been directly observed, all available data supports the fact of evolution. Main article: Evidence of evolution Q6: Why is microevolution equated with macroevolution? A6: The article doesn't equate the two, but merely recognizes that they are largely or entirely the same process, just on different timescales. The great majority of modern evolutionary biologists consider macroevolution to simply be microevolution on a larger timescale; all fields of science accept that small ("micro") changes can accumulate to produce large ("macro") differences, given enough time. Most of the topics covered in the evolution article are basic enough to not require an appeal to the micro/macro distinction. Consequently, the two terms are not equated, but simply not dealt with much. A more nuanced version of the claim that evolution has never been observed is to claim that microevolution has been directly observed, while macroevolution has not. However, that is not the case, as speciations, which are generally seen as the benchmark for macroevolution, have been observed in a number of instances. Further information: Microevolution and Macroevolution Q7: What about the scientific evidence against evolution? A7: To be frank, there isn't any. Most claimed "evidence against evolution" is either a distortion of the actual facts of the matter, or an example of something that hasn't been explained yet. The former is erroneous, as it is based on incorrect claims. The latter, on the other hand, even when accurate, is irrelevant. The fact that not everything is fully understood doesn't make a certain proposition false; that is an example of the argument from ignorance logical fallacy. Examples of claimed evidence against evolution: There aren't any transitional fossils, or there aren't enough. There are many transitional fossils, including Archaeopteryx (earliest and most primitive bird known), Thrinaxodon (a cat-sized mammal-like "reptile"), Tiktaalik (fish with many features akin to those of four-legged animals), Acanthostega (first vertebrate animal to have recognizable limbs), and Ambulocetus (early whale that could walk as well as swim). See also List of transitional fossils. That there are not more is explained by the rarity of fossilization and by punctuated equilibrium. Furthermore, technically all fossils are transitional fossils, because no species is fixed and unchanging. For example, you can argue that Homo erectus is a transitional fossil between Homo sapiens and Homo habilis. But in the same line of thought, you can say Homo habilis is a transitional fossil between A. afarensis and Homo erectus, and so on. Evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics, "the entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium". Organisms are not isolated systems. Rather, they are open systems; they exchange energy with their environment, and thus their entropy can either increase or decrease. Specifically, the main fuel source for evolution is the Sun, which is continually adding energy to the Earth ecosystem. See also Entropy and life. Evolution can't create "irreducibly complex" structures like the eye, or the bacterial flagellum. Both the vertebrate eye and the bacterial flagellum are well understood to have evolved from simpler structures. Indeed, simpler eye-like structures (such as the sea squirt's ocellus) can still be found in existing species. Complex biological traits can also evolve as exaptations, where ancestral structures that evolved for different reasons become coopted for new functions. "Irreducible complexity" is, in any case, neither a scientific concept nor a coherent argument: A less than full understanding of the evolutionary history of a biological structure is not evidence against evolution, any more than a less than full understanding of the gravitational orbit of every astronomical body is evidence against gravity. The empirical evidence for evolution is substantial, whereas no evidence has ever been provided for irreducible complexity. Evolution can't create new information. New information is created every time a mutation occurs. Even random "noise" is a form of information. (This random information is then non-randomly propagated by natural selection.) Examples of the evolution of completely new information include the enzymes of nylon-eating bacteria, which can digest nylon, a polymer that didn't exist before 1935. With regard to the Misplaced Pages Evolution article, if there is any evidence against evolution, it has yet to be accepted by any peer-reviewed scientific publication. This means that even if every editor on Misplaced Pages knew that there was evidence against evolution, we could not add that information to the article without violating Misplaced Pages's official policies of no original research and neutral point of view. Whether editors think that evolution has evidence against it or not is irrelevant; what matters are the noteworthy scientific views on this issue. Q8: How could life arise by chance? A8: If by "arise", one means "develop from non-organic matter through abiogenesis", then this is a question that is not answered by evolutionary theory. Evolution only deals with the development of pre-existing life, not with how that life first came to be. The fact that life evolves is not dependent upon the origin of life any more than the fact that objects gravitate towards other objects is dependent upon the Big Bang. On the other hand, if by "arise" one means "evolve into the organisms alive today", then the simple answer is: it didn't. Evolution does not occur "by chance". Rather, evolution occurs through natural selection, which is a non-random process. Although mutation is random, natural selection favors mutations that have specific properties—the selection is therefore not random. Natural selection occurs because organisms with favored characteristics survive and reproduce more than ones without favored characteristics, and if these characteristics are heritable they will mechanically increase in frequency over generations. Although some evolutionary phenomena, such as genetic drift, are indeed random, these processes do not produce adaptations in organisms. If the substance of this objection is that evolution seems implausible, that it's hard to imagine how life could develop by natural processes, then this is an invalid argument from ignorance. Something does not need to be intuitive or easy to grasp in order to be true. See also Introduction to evolution Objections to evolution Creation–evolution controversy Past discussions For further information, see the numerous past discussions on these topics in the archives of Talk:Evolution: The article is not neutral. It doesn't mention that evolution is controversial. NPOV disputed Accuracy of Blanket Statement Neutrality dispute NPOV Dispute Neutrality based on factualness of evolution Heavy evolutionist bias POV Issue No overwhelming scientific consensus The article should mention alternative views prominently, such as in a criticism section. Alternative Views Criticism section Neutral point of view Uhh... ok... Balance? Balancing point of view Evolution is just a theory, not a fact. Bickering Evolution as fact Fact vs. Theory Evolution vs. Theory of Evolution Newton's Theory Fact versus theory POV Theory Lack of Neutrality POV There is scientific evidence against evolution. "Matter cannot organize itself" Macro/Micro Proposed insertions Scientific problems with Evolution References See List of scientific societies rejecting intelligent design. As reported in Newsweek magazine, 29 June 1987, Page 23: "By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. Earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science..." See also Public beliefs about evolution and creation, Robinson, B. A. 1995. for a discussion on acceptance of evolution. ^ The Origin of Whales and the Power of Independent Evidence Dobzhansky T, Pavlovsky O (1971). "An experimentally created incipient species of Drosophila". Nature. 230 (5292): 289–292. doi:10.1038/230289a0. PMID 5549403. DM Hillis; JJ Bull; ME White; MR Badgett; IJ Molineux (1992). "Experimental phylogenetics: generation of a known phylogeny". Science. 255 (5044): 589–592. doi:10.1126/science.1736360. PMID 1736360. Crandall, K. (1994). "Intraspecific cladogram estimation: Accuracy at higher levels of divergence" (PDF). Systematic Biology. 43 (2): 222–235. Gates, Reginald Ruggles (September 1909). "The Behavior of the Chromosomes in Oenothera lata x O. gigas". Botanical Gazette. 48 (3): 179–199. doi:10.1086/329990. JSTOR 2467513. Herrel, A.; Huyghe, K.; Vanhooydonck, B.; Backeljau, T.; Breugelmans, K.; Grbac, I.; Van Damme, R.; Irschick, D. J. (2008). "Rapid large-scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with exploitation of a different dietary resource". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (12): 4792–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.0711998105. PMC 2290806. PMID 18344323. Cressey, Daniel (2009). "Darwin's finches tracked to reveal evolution in action". Nature. doi:10.1038/news.2009.1089. Hunt, Kathleen (1997). Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ. TalkOrigins Archive. Elsberry, Wesley R. (1998). Missing links still missing!? Lambert, Frank (2002). "Disorder — A Cracked Crutch For Supporting Entropy Discussions". Journal of Chemical Education. 79: 187–192. Retrieved 15 July 2015. Does Life On Earth Violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics? Lamb, Trevor D.; Collin, Shaun P.; Pugh, Jr, Edward N. (2007), "Evolution of the vertebrate eye: opsins, photoreceptors, retina and eye cup", Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8: 960–976 Isaak, Mark (2005). Index to Creationist Claims, Claim CB200: Irreducible complexity. TalkOrigins Archive. Robison, Keith (1996). Darwin's Black Box: Irreducible Complexity or Irreproducible Irreducibility?. TalkOrigins Archive. Musgrave, Ian & Baldwin, Rich, et al (2005). Information Theory and Creationism. TalkOrigins Archive. "Evolution and Information: The Nylon Bug". New Mexicans for Science and Reason.

	Evolution is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Misplaced Pages community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
	This article appeared on Misplaced Pages's Main Page as Today's featured article on March 18, 2005.
Article milestones Date Process Result February 4, 2005 Featured article candidate Promoted August 17, 2005 Featured article review Kept February 7, 2007 Featured article review Demoted May 31, 2007 Peer review Reviewed June 10, 2007 Featured article candidate Promoted A fact from this article appeared on Misplaced Pages's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on October 12, 2007. Current status: Featured article

This article has not yet been rated on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale. It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects.

Template:WikiProject Genetics Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Evolutionary biology Top‑importance This article is part of WikiProject Evolutionary biology, an attempt at building a useful set of articles on evolutionary biology and its associated subfields such as population genetics, quantitative genetics, molecular evolution, phylogenetics, and evolutionary developmental biology. It is distinct from the WikiProject Tree of Life in that it attempts to cover patterns, process and theory rather than systematics and taxonomy. If you would like to participate, there are some suggestions on this page (see also Misplaced Pages:Contributing FAQ for more information) or visit WikiProject Evolutionary biologyEvolutionary biologyWikipedia:WikiProject Evolutionary biologyTemplate:WikiProject Evolutionary biologyEvolutionary biology Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. History of Science Top‑importance This article is part of the History of Science WikiProject, an attempt to improve and organize the history of science content on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. You can also help with the History of Science Collaboration of the Month.History of ScienceWikipedia:WikiProject History of ScienceTemplate:WikiProject History of Sciencehistory of science Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Biology Top‑importance Evolution is part of the WikiProject Biology, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to biology on Misplaced Pages. Leave messages on the WikiProject talk page.BiologyWikipedia:WikiProject BiologyTemplate:WikiProject BiologyBiology Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Creationism Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Creationism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Creationism on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CreationismWikipedia:WikiProject CreationismTemplate:WikiProject CreationismCreationism Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Please add the quality rating to the {{WikiProject banner shell}} template instead of this project banner. See WP:PIQA for details. Religion Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Religion, a project to improve Misplaced Pages's articles on Religion-related subjects. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject ReligionTemplate:WikiProject ReligionReligion Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. Template:WP1.0

This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations: Susan Kruglinski (2006-07-02). "Map: Evolution Evolving". Discover (magazine). Michael Booth (2007-04-30). "Grading Misplaced Pages". Denver Post.

WARNING: This is not the place to discuss any alleged controversy or opinion about evolution and its related subjects. This page is for discussing improvements to the article, which is about evolution (not creation science, not creationism, and not intelligent design to name a few), and what has been presented in peer-reviewed scientific literature about it. See Misplaced Pages:No original research and Misplaced Pages:Talk page guidelines. Some common points of argument are addressed in the FAQ above, which represents the consensus of editors here. If you are interested in discussing or debating over evolution itself, you may want to visit talk.origins or elsewhere.

This article was reviewed by The Denver Post on April 30, 2007. Comments: "good," even if "stylistic infelicities abound."; "a fine introduction"; "source list appropriate, and well-rounded." Please examine the findings.(Note - this review prompted the drive to bring the article back to FA.) For more information about external reviews of Misplaced Pages articles and about this review in particular, see this page.

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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Constructor Theory of Life

See my addition. I've read the previous physics and "philosophical" paper that is easier to digest, but I've so far only read the abstract for this newest paper. I didn't even know there were any serious doubts (now resolved?) about evolution's compatibility with quantum theory..

I thought of making Constructor theory of Life a redirect. Should it or Constructor theory be added here under See also (or in main text)? This page is locked and very important, I do want some opinions on this theory before proceding.. I'm only a physics amateur (and interested in biology). comp.arch (talk) 12:01, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Uh, no. Can you cite oh say 50 to 100 peer reviewed articles from the biological and especially evolutionary literature that have themselves cited Constructor Theory of Life? Given the tens of thousands of articles in biology published every year, this should be an easy task... Otherwise, my appraisal is that what seems to intrigue you is probably without merit and almost certainly not significant.173.189.73.230 (talk) 21:09, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

I think there isn't enough being said here about horizontal gene transfer.

According to that Misplaced Pages article's lede:"... horizontal gene transfer is a highly significant phenomenon and among single-celled organisms perhaps the dominant form of genetic transfer." I think it needs to be given much more prominence here. The VAST majority of organisms on Earth are single celled. If hgt is dominant there, then it is THE dominant transfer mechanism, Q.E.D. I am not sure about the transfer of genetic information (DNA & RNA) from viruses being as significant, but clearly based on the estimates I've seen, viral genetic information comprises a significant part of our DNA and probably should also be mentioned (separately). I understand that this is a fairly "new" area of understanding, but treating Evolution, while ignoring almost completely very important genetic processes seems to be putting our heads in the sand. I'd say that epigenetic phenotype modifications (specifically methylation of DNA/gene silencing) also should be prominently mentioned because both of these things, along with germ cell mutations and somatic variation of the DNA between cells in multicellular organisms (we're all chimera) ADD to, and subtly change, the idea that what we are (genetically) is the product of (only) our parent's DNA.173.189.73.230 (talk) 21:31, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 November 2014

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Please clarify which type of evolution the author is referring to. There is speciation (which we observe) and macro-evolution (change of kinds, which is not observed). Often, writers put them together as if they are the same, but many have been confused on this issue. This change would take place upon the first two sentences in the article; perhaps it could be changed to "Evolution is of two essential definitions: speciation and macro-evolution. Speciation (which we see today) is variation within a family, while macro-evolution (not observed today) is the change from one kind of organism to another (e.g. cat to dog ... whale to cow.)." It could be something along those lines. If it is scientifically inaccurate, please don't post it, but if it is, please edit the article. 24.57.225.109 (talk) 00:43, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Read Q6 of the FAQ at the top of this talk page. Stickee (talk) 08:13, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

Evolution and Darwin's theory of Evolution - two things.

I wonder if I might suggest a small shift of emphasis.

The 'theory of evolution' and 'Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection' are often used as synonyms but they are really two different things. Evolution is indisputable fact, Darwin's theory is about the mechanism of evolution by natural selection: it is (slightly) less certain than evolution itself and can thus be argued against. I always try and carefully distinguish between the two lest anyone who thinks they have found a flaw in Darwin's theory think they have also found a flaw in the theory of evolution. Cassandra 2.96.13.183 (talk) 11:18, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

I think Darwin's first version, and the modern standard versions are distinguished in the article? Could you clarify what needs clarifying? You seem to emphasize a concern with the term "natural selection", but the concept of selection (which is actually a word being used metaphorically in biology) is still standard?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 12:21, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

I believe evolution is factual but it is a theory and it should be stated that it is merely a theory for neutrality and factual reasons. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Brodieshady496 (talk • contribs) 23:34, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Please read the FAQ at the top of the page. Specifically Q3. Thanks. --McSly (talk) 23:42, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

If the theory of evolution is merely a theory then how can evolution be a fact. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.145.40.184 (talk) 23:50, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Please read Evolution as theory and fact. --McSly (talk) 23:54, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes you are correct. Thanks for the information! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.145.40.184 (talk) 00:03, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 December 2014

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Evolution be changed to The Theory of Evolution, as this may be taught in schools, but is still not accepted as fact. 2601:E:8280:7EE:7863:DE0:419A:FF6E (talk) 10:21, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

 Not done - Unsurprisingly, this has been suggested before, but consensus is very clearly against you - please see the archives - all 65 of them.
For a summary. please also see the FAQs at the top of this page - particularly No 3 - Arjayay (talk) 10:39, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Article Organization

I think that the structure for the article does not allow the reader to link holistically the concepts of evolutionary theory. As an example of a better structure, I might suggest the Spanish version of the article. I would propose a new index in order to improve the organization of the article and allow for a better understanding of evolutionary theory. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.111.163.115 (talk) 13:12, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

I agree that the organization and clarity of this article could be improved. The Spanish version of the Evolution article does have better organization.

Translation of Evolution article (Spanish version):

1 Evolution as documented fact

1.1 Evidence of the evolutionary process

1.2 The origin of life

1.3 The evolution of life on Earth

2 Scientific theories about evolution

2.1 History of evolutionary thought

2.2 Darwinism

2.3 Neo-Darwinism

2.4 Modern evolutionary synthesis

2.5 Expansion of the modern synthesis

3 Modern evolutionary synthesis

3.1 Variability

3.1.1 Mutation

3.1.2 Genetic recombination

3.1.3 Population genetics

3.1.4 Gene Flow

3.2 Mechanisms of evolution

3.2.1 Natural Selection

3.2.2 Genetic Drift

3.3 Consequences of evolution

3.3.1 Adaptation

3.3.2 Coevolution

3.3.3 Speciation

3.3.4 Extinction

3.4 Microevolution and macroevolution

4 Expansion of the modern synthesis

4.1 Paleobiology and evolutionary rates

4.2 Environmental causes of mass extinctions

4.3 Sexual selection and altruism

4.4 Macroevolution, promising monsters and punctuated equilibrium

4.5 Synthesis of developmental biology and evolutionary theory

4.6 Microbiology and horizontal gene transfer

4.7 Endosymbiosis and origin of eukaryotic cells

4.8 Changes in the expression of genes involved in the inheritance

5 Experiments and studies on the evolutionary process

5.1 Direct observation of the evolutionary process in bacteria

5.2 Computer simulation of the process of biological evolution

6 Impacts of the theory of evolution

6.1 Evolution and religion

6.2 Other theories of evolution and scientific reviews of the synthetic theory

6.2.1 Other minority hypothesis

7 See also

8 References

9 Further reading

10 External links

Please consider the organization of the following source:

Understanding Evolution Website 2014. Understanding evolution: your one-stop source for information on evolution. Collaborative project of University of California Museum of Paleontology and the National Center for Science Education. Accessed 13-Dec-2014.

Evolution 101

1 An introduction to evolution

2 The history of life: looking at the patterns

• The family tree

• Understanding phylogenies

• Building the tree

• Homologies and analogies

• Using the tree for classification

• Adding time to the tree

• How we know what happened when

• Important events in the history of life

3 Mechanisms: the processes of evolution

• Descent with modification

• Mechanisms of change

• Genetic variation

• Mutations

• The causes of mutations

• Gene flow

• Sex and genetic shuffling

• Development

• Genetic drift

• Natural selection

• What about fitness?

• Sexual selection

• Artificial selection

• Adaptation

• Misconceptions about natural selection

• Coevolution

4 Microevolution

• Defining microevolution

• Detecting microevolutionary change

• Mechanisms of microevolution

5 Speciation

• Defining a species

• Defining speciation

• Causes of speciation

• Reproductive isolation

• Evidence for speciation

• Cospeciation

6 Macroevolution

• What is macroevolution?

• Patterns in macroevolution

7 The big issues

• The pace of evolution

• Diversity in clades

• Looking at complexity

• Trends in evolution

TheProfessor (talk) 14:48, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

A Question

Shouldn't something be said about the flaws in the theory of evolution on this page to give an unbiased view of the theory?— Preceding unsigned comment added by Dogmyth (talk • contribs)

New sections belong at the bottom, please sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~). We do not give equal validity to topics which reject and are rejected by mainstream academia. For example, our article on Earth does not pretend it is flat, hollow, and/or the center of the universe. Those blue words are links to site policies and guidelines that back up the material I discuss. Given your other edits, it's clear that you're here to push a creationist POV and may not be here to build an unbiased encyclopedia. Ian.thomson (talk) 03:48, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Regarding recent changes

These edits have been reverted by multiple users because "This article is specific to evolution in biology", and the edit "appears contentious".

This article's content is about biological evolution, and (per WP:LEDE) the intro summarizes the article. The removed content discussed a number of uses of the word "evolution" that had nothing to do with biology. Ian.thomson (talk) 00:27, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes, that page is about "biologcal evolution" and the biological evolution page REDIRECTS there! Why? That makes NO SENSE! The page is named "evolution". Not "biological evolution". Where should "evolution" be described, if the "evolution" page is to be RESERVED FOR "biological evolution" while the "biological evolution" page is left blank except for a redirect to the "evolution" page? In my opinion, that is HIDING WHAT EVOLUTION IS from the public. Is that what Misplaced Pages is for? To deceive the public? DonaldKronos (talk) 00:49, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Per the scholarly and technical definition of the word evolution, evolution IS just biological evolution. Only colloquially does it refer to other forms of change. And since this is an encyclopedia, there is a natural preference for using terms in a scholarly/technical way, hence the evolution article is about biological evolution only. Other encyclopedias do it the exact same way.01:03, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Quote: "evolution IS just biological evolution" -- Response: Bull SH*T! BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION is "just biological evolution". EVOLUTION is not! What religion told you that silly lie? I'm really SICK AND TIRED OF THE CENSORSHIP IN HERE! I have noticed that the article is written as if it were meant to discredit evolution, rather than to explain it. Now, should I continue trying to assume good intentions? DonaldKronos (talk) 01:49, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Additions being deleted --- Looked like vandalism to me!

Okay, I do see the "NOTE: Please do not change the lead sentence(s) without consulting the discussion page first. This lead has been discussed and there is general consensus that this is the best one for now. Thanks." at the top now. Didn't notice it before... so yes, when my changes were deleted, it certainly looked like vandalism to me. I'll post my proposed changed here in the talk page, but really.... does it make ANY SENSE to have an "evolution" page, that is all about ONE KIND OF THING EVOLVING IN ONE SPECIFIC WAY, when everything capable of accumulating changes evolves? If there is a reason why my hard work should be thrown away, PLEASE , SOMEBODY, kindly explain it to me.

Here's the text of the first two paragraphs after the changes I had made...

Evolution in its broadest sense, is the accumulation of change. In this sense, anything in which changes accumulate, evolves. This is true of culture, language, computer software, technology, knowledge, automation, and so on. A quick web search for information about the evolution of any such thing should provide plenty of reference material.

Probably the most well known type of evolution, accumulation of hereditary modification, also known as descent with modification, causes the accumulation of change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Such evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including the biodiversity of species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.

...There's nothing off topic about any of that, nor was it poorly written, nor was it poorly references, so why was it deleted?

This is what it is being reverted to...

Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including the biodiversity of species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.

...again, that paragraph is NOT about "evolution". It is, as I stated in my additions, about "accumulation of hereditary modification". That is a SUBSET of "evolution", and should be given its own page, if it can't be seen with an actual description of what "evolution" is. DonaldKronos (talk) 00:40, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Where's the evolution page belong?

Why is the evolution page for evolution in biology, or "biological evolution", rather than about the subject of evolution? Shouldn't the evolution in biology or biological evolution page be for such topics, if there is something wrong with treating them as part of the subject of evolution? Embryos evolve into babies, who evolve into children, who evolve into adults, who evolve into old people, all through the process of the accumulation of change. That is as much BIOLOGICAL evolution as evolution through descent with modification is... but I see no place for such information on that "biological evolution" page disguised as an "evolution" page. Now, how should I treat that? Can I make a suggestion? I don't even know where one would go! So I edited the page, to try to make it actually about the topic it's named after, and the response I got did not feel at all like a community treating me as a member. It felt like being attacked. So if my response to feeling like I've been attacked isn't the greatest, please forgive me.... but I have NO IDEA how to correct what I see as a MAJOR PROBLEM in that page.... especially since correcting it seems to be off limits. Should it be? Really?

I would think that a Misplaced Pages page about evolution should be allowed to evolve... Especially with all the damage being done out there by people claiming that evolution doesn't happen. Are we trying to make them right? I hope not.

Speaking of evolution, I had added the following short paragraph, saved the changes... somehow apparently inadvertently then deleted those same changes, and then wrote the above paragraph to replace the one below, which I thought was just lost... but turned out to be in the revision history...

It seems to me that the evolution page should be allowed to evolve. Especially considering the damage being done to human society by people claiming that evolution doesn't happen. Well... it happened, and it got reverted.

So does anyone read this? Or an I typing all of this for nothing? This whole page is like a big wall of text, and the references in the quotes I posted are showing up at the bottom... forcing the text that would OTHERWISE be at the bottom to scroll up. Is it perhaps time for wikis to evolve?

DonaldKronos (talk) 01:29, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

1. Tradition: ‘A behaviour pattern transmitted repeatedly through social learning to become a population-level characteristic’.The Evolution of Culture by Andrew Whiten
2. The forces affecting language and the evolution which a language continually undergoes are covered, with historical changes in spellings, meanings, and sounds traced in some detail.Aspects of Language. - Bolinger, Dwight
3. Coping with huge amounts of data is one of the major problems in the context of software evolution.Understanding Software Evolution using a Combination of Software Visualization and Software Metrics (2002) by Michele Lanza , Stéphane Ducasse
4. We describe GEVOL, a system that visualizes the evolution of software using a novel graph drawing technique for visualization of large graphs with a temporal component.A system for graph-based visualization of the evolution of software
5. This paper draws on an evolutionary theory of economic growth that brings together appreciative theorizing regarding growth and formal theorizing.The Co-evolution of Technology, Industrial Structure, and Supporting Institutions by RICHARD R. NELSON
6. The analysis of the evolution of knowledge is distinguished from standard economics and neoDarwinian biology; it combines purpose with the impossibility of empirical proof.The Evolution of Knowledge: Beyond the Biological Model by Brian J. Loasby
7. Nursing Research has made a significant contribution in disseminating the body of tested knowledge related to the health disparities experienced by vulnerable populations and the methodologies associated with vulnerable populations research.Health Disparities Among Vulnerable Populations: Evolution of Knowledge Over Five Decades in Nursing Research Publications
8. The paper covers the evolution of drilling mechanization and automation from the mid-nineteenth century to today.The Evolution of Automation in Drilling
9. From these considerations, I shall devote the first chapter of this Abstract to Variation under Domestication. We shall thus see that a large amount of hereditary modification is at least possible, and, what is equally or more important, we shall see how great is the power of man in accumulating by his Selection successive slight variations.On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - 1st Edition
10. ^ Hall & Hallgrímsson 2008, pp. 3–5 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHallHallgrímsson2008 (help)

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