Debunking Common Myths About Evolution

Myth 1: Everything is an Adaptation Produced by Natural Selection

We tend to assume that all characteristics of plants and animals are adaptations that have arisen through natural selection. Many are neither adaptations nor the result of selection at all.

Argument 1: Not everything is an adaptation

→ Male nipples

Argument 2: Multi-Skilled Genes

We have multi-skilled genes which have more than one function.

Myth 2: Natural Selection Is the Only Means of Evolution

Before we were told all of the 10 facts were myths, we already thought this was not right, because science can also change evolution with the advanced technology we have nowadays.

Myth 3: Evolution Leads to Ever-Greater Complexity

→ No -. Evolution gets rid of what we don’t use (example: cavefish & tapeworm). Just because a gene has more than one function, doesn’t mean it will be more efficient. In fact, the gene could die due to an “overdose” of functions.

Myth 4: Evolution Produces Creatures Perfectly Adapted to Their Environment

You don't need to be perfect only to be as well adapted as your competitors in order to survive. Evolving some features can be beneficial in some ways but could also reduce their overall fitness. For example a bird with a very colorful tail could benefit from it because it could help him attract males of its specie. But it could also make them more vulnerable to predators. That's why it is impossible to reach perfection. And evolution is determined or constrained by history.

Myth 5: Evolution Always Promotes the Survival of Species

Evolution sometimes results in individuals or populations becoming less fit and may occasionally even lead to extinction.

Myth 6: It Doesn't Matter If People Do Not Understand Evolution

At an individual level, it might not matter much. However, any modern society which bases major decisions on superstition rather than reality is heading for disaster.

Myth 7: Survival of the Fittest Justifies Everyone for Themselves

It is not the strongest that survives, it is the better designed for an environment the one that survives. Cells and Jenovas wittneses

Myth 8: Evolution Is Limitlessly Creative

Evolution does have its limits, (at least on Earth). Some things that could be useful have not evolved. “halfway radio example”

Myth 9: Evolution Can’t Explain Homosexuality

It does not reduce fertility homosexual individuals can still have children, homosexuality benefits the social structure of some species,

Myth 10: Evolution Is Random

Evolution by natural selection is a two-step process, and only the first step is random: mutations are chance events, but their survival is often anything but.

Myth 11: Evolution Cannot Be Disproved

Lots of experiments that could have falsified the evolution.

Fraudulent Claims

Clearly if the first fossil amphibians were older than the first fossil fish, it would show that amphibians could not have evolved from fisrt

Deep Time

If earth was young then evolution wouldn’t work because evolutions needs time (needs deep time).