EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY RESPONSES TO SOME COMMON, MISGUIDED CRITICISMS OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

“Evolution as a process that has always gone on in the history of the Earth can be doubted only by those who are ignorant of the evidence or are resistant to evidence, owing to emotional blocks or to plain bigotry.” – Theodosius Dobzhansky (1) “When I think that we are enmeshed again in the same struggle for one of the best documented, most compelling and exciting concepts in all of science, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. ” – Stephen Jay Gould (2) Few scientific principles are as notoriously misused or chronically misunderstood as that of biological evolution. Despite broad scientific consensus on the issue, today 33 % of Americans believe the question of whether evolution shaped modern species to be contentious among scientists (3). Of those Americans who identify themselve