1 post from March 2009

As you may have heard recently, Feb 12th was Charles Darwin's birthday.  Naturally, there has been a lot of press about this and a lot of discussions.  But I think a lot of people don't understand what Darwin actually discovered.

People always knew that evolution existed.  Farmers of the day were quite adept at developing plants for different characteristics.  They knew how to evolve both plants and animals to take on certain traits.  Simply breed the organisms with the most desirable traits and some of their offspring will share the same traits.  It was common knowledge.  Unfortunately, people believed that only an intelligent being such as man or God could influence nature in this way.

When a child would ask his parents why a peacock has such intricate feathers, the natural response was simply, "because God made him that way."  What people didn't understand was that evolution could occur outside of intelligent design.  Through many observations and experiments, Charles Darwin was able to demonstrate that evolution could occur through natural selection (i.e. snowbound vs. desert), sexual selection (for example, some women may prefer taller mates) or even group selection (i.e. people who worship the sun God are removed from the group and don't have children).

He demonstrated how the same animals separated by a mountain range or body of water would develop different characteristics depending on their environment.  This is called the survival of the fittest.  He even showed how the sexual preferences of some animals would lead to different characteristics.  The peacocks feathers certainly don't give him a natural advantage.  In fact, the extra weight and bulk of those feathers make him easier to catch for his predators.  But if the females prefer an ornate display, then he will father more children.

So now, when kids ask their parents why a peacock has such intricate feathers, the parents respond, "well, er, um... because God made him that way."  We've come a long way in 200 years.