Alliance For Science

There are many misconceptions propagated by creationists regarding the theory of evolution. Below are a few of the most common ones.

"Evolution is..."

• "A theory on the origin of the universe"

  Cosmology and Big Bang Theory deal with the origin of the universe, and are separate fields from biology. While "evolution" is sometimes used poetically in these fields, they do not refer to biological evolution. Creationists typically have to make this erroneous connection in order to claim silly things like evolution is trying to replace God.

• "A theory on the origin of life"

  No. The study of the origins of life is called abiogenesis. Abiogenesis is a young, exciting, and most importantly a distinct field, and evolutionary theory is valid no matter what abiogenesis researchers discover. Perhaps someday enough evidence will be gathered and the two theories will be merged, but for now they remain separate entities.

• "A hierarchy, with humans at the top"

  No modern organisms are more or less “evolved” than others. All are equally well adapted to their respective environmental niche. There is no direction to the process; species cannot "devolve".

• "Survival of the Fittest"

  Darwin did not even coin this term. Creationists like to use it and suggest that since evolution chooses the best possible outcome, "humans should have wings and fly; since this isn't the case, evolution must be wrong". Evolution does not necessarily choose only the organism with the highest possible degree of "fitness", but merely selects the ones that meet the bare minimum criteria for survival in a particular environment. So more appropriately, evolution is survival of the barely adequate. Of these surviving organisms, some may be better off than others, and they will leave more offspring.

• "Cats giving birth to dogs"

  Individual organisms do not evolve. Evolution does not suggest a cat would give birth to a dog, or banana trees would sprout kangaroos. Groups of organisms (populations) evolve, by changing gradually over time.

• "Random chance"

  While some of the mechanisms of evolution are random, others (i.e. natural selection) are not.

• "An evil, atheistic attempt to drive God out of our lives"

  This notion is not only ridiculous, but offensive to many believers. In science, people of all faiths and none can work together in the same lab and have no conflicts regarding the work they do. Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, agnostics, and yes atheists, they all strive towards a common goal of better understanding the natural world. To see what our members think, click here.