Last Thursday, January 24th, 2008 Louise Mead of the National Center for Science Education graced our class with a presentation surrounding the controversy of the teaching of Evolution in our school. Louise Mead obtained a Ph D. and is a Education Project Director.
Louise Mead began her lecture with a simple explanation of Evolution: common ancestry with descent over time. This was proven by Darwin who explained Evolution and proved it with overwhelming evidence from several fossils that he collected. The evidences for Evolution are Biogeography, Comparative Anatomy, Molecular Biology, Fossil Record, Developmental Biology. Even though Darwin proved Evolution with several examples and specimens that he collected on his trip on board the Beagle, several scientists up to this point has added evidence to help further prove the his theory on Evolution. Examples of this are the Eustheropterons that lived 385 million years ago to the Ichthyostega that lived 360 million years ago. Scientists could find an ancestral link between these two animals proving that some animals evolved from sea to land. Along with there has been proof of the same genes used in animals. An example would be that the gene used to code for eyes in mice also work for the eyes of fruit flies proven in 1982.
Even though the proof and evidence of Evolution is overwhelming several people still do not believe in Evolution. A poll that was taken over the years has said that around 50 million people believe God created man, around 40 million people think there was Evolution, but God led the way for Evolution, and around 10 million think God had no part to do in Evolution. Several court cases were presented over this matter. In 1925 John Scopes a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee was tried by the State of Tennessee for teaching Evolution in his classroom. In 1968 Epperson was tried against the state of Arkansas for teaching Evolution, McLean was also tried against Arkansas in 1982 and Edwards was tried by Aguillard in 1987 and ruled creationism was wrong. After years people developed other theories such as Intelligent Design. Intelligent Design states that there was Evolution, but God led the ancestors through Evolution. Eventually Judge John E. Jones ruled that Intelligent Design is not Science and that Intelligent Design should not be taught because: "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents". He concluded that the Idea of Intelligent Design violated the Establishment Clause and First Amendment.
In the end Louise Mead concluded by telling us her main ideas on Evolution. Evolution is real Science that proves ever day occurrences where as Intelligent Design is not real Science. There is no Controversy among scientists that Evolution has occurred and over the time Darwin presented his theory there has been substantial proof that there was indeed Evolution.
Reflection
I feel that Louise Mead was a spectacular presenter and I feel that she explained Evolution in a light that helps people better understand what Evolution is and I hope eventually more people will come to understand it and learn to accept it.
