24 myths and misconceptions about evolution

April 18, 2008

I’m constantly mystified during discussions where people argue “they should show BOTH sides of the arguement about evolution in science class.” What they mean is that they should discuss Creationism, the belief that god created everything, in science class. I’m ALL FOR teaching creationism in a world religion or a philosophy class. However, creationism does NOT fall under the scientific method as a means to prove anything so it should stay OUT of the science classroom. It’s for this reason that, for instance, evolutionary biologist and astronomers, etc usually avoid the idea of Creationism altogether. It’s not that they do not believe in god… in fact many well know scientist are very religious. The avoid the subject because it cannot be proven. There’s no mountain of recreatable/verifiable evidence to back it up.

For those who have never had the opportunity to find out about biology or science, claims made by those who believe in supernatural alternatives to evolutionary theory can appear convincing. Meanwhile, even among those who accept evolution, misconceptions abound.

Most of us are happy to admit that we do not understand, say, the string theory in physics, yet we are all convinced we understand evolution. In fact, as biologists are discovering, its consequences can be stranger than we ever imagined. Evolution must be the best-known yet worst-understood of all scientific theories.

So here is New Scientist’s guide to some of the most common myths and misconceptions about evolution.

There are already several good and comprehensive guides out there. But there can’t be too many.