Thanks in advance. I come from a Christian school so they don’t teach evolution because they don’t believe it.
In: Biology
If you’re interested you can see evolution (or a model of evolution, but with real inheritance, mutation, selection, etc.) in artificial life simulations. Lot’s of options out there, this is one of the ones I created: [https://youtu.be/Nor4FxoLT9U](https://youtu.be/Nor4FxoLT9U)
Wow, big topic.
So evolution is process by which changes in inheritable traits get passed on from generation to generation and those traits either spread or die out based on how beneficial those traits are.
Organisms all have traits that are coded in our genes. Our genes are essentially the “blueprint” for how to make a living being. All living beings pass on their genes to their offspring. Every time an organism reproduces, some genes are randomly different (called a mutation). Some of these genes can help the offspring survive, others can be harmful, and others might be neutral. Genes that help the offspring survive are more likely to be passed on because that organism will be more likely to live long enough to have offspring of its own. And so on and so forth.
So here’s an example. Let’s imagine an animal that eats leaves that grow on tall trees. Some of these animals will randomly have longer necks than others. The animals with the longer necks can reach more of the leaves, which means they get more leaves to eat. Eating more makes the animals more fit and healthier. Thus, they’re more likely to survive and have children. Those children will have inherited their parents genes for longer necks, and in turn, the ones that survive will pass on the long-necked genes to their offspring, and so on. Over many many *many* generations across millions of years, this passing along of traits led to an entire new species of organisms that branched off from their shorter-necked ancestors.
Some important things to note that people frequently misunderstand:
* Which mutations arise is *random.* Just because a trait *would* be useful doesn’t mean it will occur. In other words, evolution is not directed. It doesn’t have a purpose or a goal or a destination. Which mutations happen are random, and the beneficial or neutral ones stick around.
* Evolution doesn’t turn one species into another. In other words, it’s not a straight line, but rather branches from a common point, like branches on a tree. For example, humans did not evolve *from* modern apes, but rather modern apes and humans *branched* *apart* from a common ancestor species millions of years ago.
* Evolution is absolutely real and scientifically confirmed. We can watch it happen in real time with species that reproduce very quickly. It’s called a theory, but in science, a theory doesn’t mean a “guess” – in science, a theory is an explanation for some aspect of the world that is well-tested and proven by observation.
A lot of these answers I think missed a very important point.
Genes mutate, causing differences among a population and the genetic mutation that makes an organism better at sharing its genes(making more babies) will succeed over other mutations that are not as successful at replicating themselves. It is not that an organisms environment will lead to them being better suited to living in it, or that the fittest survive. It’s that the ones who are best at reproducing survive. Oftentimes those can be the same thing, but the root cause is different. Genes are selfish and just want to make sure they get passed down, not that the organism is best suited to its environment, or that the organism is “improving”.
Read *Undeniable* by Bill Nye. The comments in this thread are good, but *Undeniable* is a more complete explanation, and touches on the religious backlash aspect. He wrote the book after his infamous debate with Ken Hamm. You might find that debate interesting since it speaks directly to the debate and misinformation you’re dealing with now. Here’s a [link](https://youtu.be/HA3E8wpBO_I?si=2OBo3fgZdYeo7JcA).
A bird has two baby chicks. One of the baby chicks has a mutated gene that lets it fly faster than its brother. Its brother gets eaten by a snake because it’s slower but the mutant baby escapes because it can fly faster. He survives to have lots of baby chicks that are also fast fliers.
Eventually, over thousands of generations, the mutations build up to produce a baby chick that’s unrecognizable from the original fast baby chick. A brand new species. Evolution.
Dumbing it down using sentient M&Ms.
You love M&Ms, but GREEN is your favorite color so you refuse to eat green M&Ms. You take them out of every pack and store them in a nice jar.
The M&Ms start to notice that their green brothers survive longer than the other colors. So the other colors hatch a plan to avoid being eaten — they try to make themselves green via various ways. The blues try to mix with the yellows. Some other colors try to rub themselves on the green ones so that the green dye gets on them. Some others try to mate with the green ones so that their kids come out at least half green.
Over time, the ones who succeed the best at turning into green M&Ms survive longer than the other ones who fail at turning green. After a long time, all the remaining and future M&Ms become so damn good at it, that every single pack is now full of green M&Ms, and none gets eaten.
This is a simplified explanation of “survival of the fittest”.
Evolution is the process of how populations of organizations change. The underlying thing is that the building blocks of life, our genes, can change. Our DNA’s ability to replicate and repair itself is very robust, but since this happens constantly there will be some errors. These changes (mutations) are ultimately random, and most of the time they don’t do anything/aren’t seen.
Over time these changes can accumulate in populations of a species. Maybe it allows them to survive better and have more offspring (better ability to access food, healthier young, etc). Maybe a disaster randomly kills off 90% of the original population but by chance most of the survivors just had this one trait. Maybe a subset of the population with a certain trait got blown away to an island and developed differently.
Evolution is a lot of chance things happening and is at the whims of the environment’s realities
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