ARTICLE2
The Facts of Evolution
1. What is the point Shermer is trying to make in this article?
Shermer’s point is that evolution is a historical science and it did in fact happen and there is a lot of evidence to support that it did.
2. What was Darwin’s contribution to our understanding of coral reefs?
Our understanding of coral reefs is now that there aren’t different kinds of coral reefs but rather all coral reefs are in different stages of development.
3. Who was Darwin’s “one long argument” with? What was his view? How was it different from the Darwinian one?
Darwin’s “one long argument” was with theologian William Paley. Paley’s view was Intelligent Design; the correlation of the works of god and the words of god. Darwin’s theory involved no personal beliefs but Paley’s does.
4. What did Ernst Mayr mean when he asserted that evolution has both “horizontal” and “Vertical” dimensions?
The vertical dimension describes how a species responds to an environment over time, and the horizontal dimension describes the adaptations that break through the genetic divide. He states that evolution is a change in the adaptation and in the diversity of populations of organisms.
5. What five tenets of evolution does Mayr outline? Describe each.
The first tenet is evolution which means that organisms change through time. The second is descent without modification meaning, evolution proceeds through the branching of common descent, offspring are similar but are not exact replicas of their parents. The third is gradualism, meaning that all change is slow and steady; with enough time small changes can change to large changes. The fourth is multiplication, meaning that evolution doesn’t only produce new species, it also produces an increasing number of new species. The fifth tenet is natural selection, meaning evolutionary change is not random, it follows a selective process.
6. What according to Shermer, is “one of the most important and difficult points to grasp about
1. What is the point Shermer is trying to make in this article?
Shermer’s point is that evolution is a historical science and it did in fact happen and there is a lot of evidence to support that it did.
2. What was Darwin’s contribution to our understanding of coral reefs?
Our understanding of coral reefs is now that there aren’t different kinds of coral reefs but rather all coral reefs are in different stages of development.
3. Who was Darwin’s “one long argument” with? What was his view? How was it different from the Darwinian one?
Darwin’s “one long argument” was with theologian William Paley. Paley’s view was Intelligent Design; the correlation of the works of god and the words of god. Darwin’s theory involved no personal beliefs but Paley’s does.
4. What did Ernst Mayr mean when he asserted that evolution has both “horizontal” and “Vertical” dimensions?
The vertical dimension describes how a species responds to an environment over time, and the horizontal dimension describes the adaptations that break through the genetic divide. He states that evolution is a change in the adaptation and in the diversity of populations of organisms.
5. What five tenets of evolution does Mayr outline? Describe each.
The first tenet is evolution which means that organisms change through time. The second is descent without modification meaning, evolution proceeds through the branching of common descent, offspring are similar but are not exact replicas of their parents. The third is gradualism, meaning that all change is slow and steady; with enough time small changes can change to large changes. The fourth is multiplication, meaning that evolution doesn’t only produce new species, it also produces an increasing number of new species. The fifth tenet is natural selection, meaning evolutionary change is not random, it follows a selective process.
6. What according to Shermer, is “one of the most important and difficult points to grasp about