Evolution Explained Properly

Even though it’s been hundreds of years since Darwin first proposed the theory of evolution, the issue is still hotly debated, or even worse, ignored to avoid the potential controversy.

The controversy regarding evolution is usually based on ignorance. How could something as complex as the human eye evolve? What about a giraffe? Richard Dawkins book, The Blind Watchmaker, sets out to explore the subtleties of evolution through a humorous and thorough discourse.

The basis for his work is not fossil evidence (as was Douglas Futuyma’s book, Science on Trial), but rather on genetics.

The book has few idle sentences, and is thus a difficult one to summarize, but I’d like to sum up a couple of key points that provide the basis of many of his arguments:

We Are Efficient DNA Reproducers, Our Ancestors Were Not
Every cell in the human body has DNA associated with it. Each strand of DNA, due to chemical interactions inside the cell, generates errors in the order of five thousand per day (yup, five thousand mistakes per cell per day). Your body is very efficient and finding and fixing those errors.

Earlier life forms (we’re talking very early) were not as efficient at DNA duplication and error correction. As a result, species today evolve less frequently than they did at the time life first appeared on earth.

Mutations Are Random, Survival is Not
DNA does not always replicate perfectly. Mistakes are made. Dawkins argues that many of these mutations have no bearing on survival. But when a mutation does affect an organisms ability to live in it’s environment, the life cycle of the organism is affected.

If the mutation was positive then the organism was probably able to produce more offspring. If the mutation was disadvantageous, then the organism was probably less successful at producing offspring. Luck will definitely have some bearing on the matter, but over time, good mutations tend to be propagated throughout the gene pool, and bad mutations tend to die out.

There Are More Ways to Be Dead Than Alive
As I mentioned above, most mutations are almost meaningless, but a few do have some effect. Of those that have effect, most do “bad” things. Millions of chemical interactions occur each day in every animal’s body. Chances are that a mutation will not fit into the larger picture. If this mutation occurred in an important aspect of the organism’s systems, it will most likely have a negative impact (most likely death).

Evolution is Cumulative
Dawkins provides some interesting statistics on how long it would take a million monkeys to reproduce the work of Shakespeare.
He provides two different cases:

If what the monkey types is not a perfect match of Hamlet, it gets thrown out and the monkey starts again.

If what the monkey types is not perfect, the correct letters in the correct positions gets saved, and the monkey then improves on the parts it has correct.

The time that it would take a million monkeys to reproduce Shakespeare in the first case is astronomically longer than it would take to reproduce the second case (read the book if you want to see the numbers).

Evolution works in the same way that the second set of monkeys does. If genetic change is advantageous, it is reproduced, and evolution builds upon it. The human eyeball did not magically appear in a single evolutionary step.

What Did I Think….
It’s probably obvious that I found this book highly enjoyable. It’s not an easy read; Dawkins does tend to get bogged down in simple ideas (most likely to ensure that his point is fully understood), and sometimes I found his humor more annoying than funny. But that’s nitpicking. The book is one that everyone who has opinion on evolution should read.

The book is not anti-spiritual (or Christian), though many view evolution as the antithesis of spirituality. Mr. Dawkins does make the point that many scientists are deeply religious people. There can be peaceful co-existence (so long as both sides agree to keep an open mind).

I suppose that some religious people would consider this work blasphemous, but I would say the same for the Spanish Inquisition, the colonization of the “New World”, the Crusades, the witch hunts of New England, the attacks on Christians by Muslems in Indonesia and other parts of the world, and so on.