What do you most wish people would understand about evolution?

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

I guess this is what I wish everyone would understand about evolution.

It’s a creation that keeps on creating because there is grandeur in this view of life,
with its several powers,
having been originally breathed
into a few forms or into one;
and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on
according to the fixed law of gravity,
from so simple a beginning
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful
have been, and are being, evolved

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist)]

Had to look that one up – being relatively illiterate and/or at least having senior memory, I didn’t recognize it as a Darwin quote. That, and ‘whilst’ didn’t sound like you.

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist)]

A big reason I accept the science of evolution is my becoming aware of the concept of neutral drift and the neutral theory of evolution. In conjunction with those, I also became aware of what population genetics implies. Formerly I thought that a single mutation in a single base pair in DNA was supposed to have been able accomplish and account for each morphologic and phenotypic change, “macroevolution” and “irreducibly complex” structures and molecular machines.

@T_aquaticus’ post above just this evening and its accompanying citation didn’t hurt either, about constructive neutral evolution (CNE):

@T_aquaticus

So it could be that multicellularity and overall eukaryotic complexity is due to the removal of selection against complexity, not necessarily selection for complexity.

[SkovandOfMitaze (Mi)]

All I did was add “ creation that keeps on creating “ to his quote. It’s my favorite quote by Darwin actually. Always felt it was the perfect blend of the way evolution works with a head nod to genesis about “ having been breathed into a few forms or one “.

But it’s also a fairly iconic quote of his referred thousands of times lol. I’ve read it in so many books, xd covers and heard it in films.

[Dale (evolutionary providentialist)]

@SkovandOfMitaze

All I did was add “ creation that keeps on creating “

Ah, that explains it. You tricked me. “There is a grandeur…” I do recognize. Maybe because there was no capital T or it’s too close to my bedtime.

[St.Roymond]

@knor

There seems to be a (false) dichotomy to micro- and macroevolution. When explained what biological evolution is, people may somehow accept that ‘microevolution’ happens but absolutely deny ‘macroevolution’. Usually these people do not even think what is the difference between ‘microevolution’ and ‘macroevolution’, they just have read from somewhere that ‘microevolution’ is ok but ‘macroevolution’ is bad.

This strikes me as a good analogy: agreeing that there are bricks and mortar, but refusing to believe there can be brick walls.

[St.Roymond]

@SkovandOfMitaze

It’s a creation that keeps on creating because there is grandeur in this view of life,
with its several powers,
having been originally breathed
into a few forms or into one;
and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on
according to the fixed law of gravity,
from so simple a beginning
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful
have been, and are being, evolved

Or, as I have put it in somewhat poetic fashion, that original command of “Bring forth!” given to land and sea just echoes on down the millennia.

[St.Roymond]

Sort of on the side, I wish people would stop with the strange idea that the theory of evolution endures because scientists don’t want to rock the boat! In my experience in university science courses and getting to know a fair number of my professors, rocking the boat is precisely what they all aspire to regardless of the branch of science.