On Sun, 06 Jan 2002 15:50:37 -0500 george murphy <gmurphy@raex.com>
writes:
> In discussing the IDEA website we've noted its misleading definition
> of "Darwinism." Here's a misleading definition of evolution.
Evolution is
> "descent with modification" not (as a matter of definition) "life
changing
> from simple to complex." The emergence of a new species would not
> necessarily involve any increase in complexity, & might even involve
> simplification. This isn't to deny that the complexity of organisms
has
> increased over the past ~3.5 x 10^9 yr, but that's not inherent in the
idea
> of evolution.
I followed the response to the use of "uniformitarianism", and to an
extent agreed. But I think this one is splitting hairs.
From the Kansas Science Standards (p 70 of 75): "Evolution - Biological:
.....With respect to living organisms, evolution has two major
perspectives: The long-term perspective focuses on the branching of
lineages; the short-term perspective centers on changes within lineages.
In the long term, evolution is the descent with modification of different
lineages from common ancestors..."
Without the concept of "molecules to man" (increasing complexity), you
cut the heart out of the theory.
Bill
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