Evolution's details still questioned

Science seeks to understand nature and the universe by observation and evidence based learning. However, if history has demonstrated nothing else, it has demonstrated that, generally, our observations have led us to many incorrect ideas and interpretations, and false beliefs.

Dr. John Ioannidis and a number of other researchers have been examining bias and false studies. Ioannidis published an article in The Lancet medical journal that as much as one-third of promising medical publications prove false. The problem of bias and false factual findings is not limited to just medical research, but every field from ecology to evolution. Consider those facts with regard to Darwinian evolution as fact.

While it is true that mainstream scientists accept the concept of evolution as fact, there is little agreement on the details and mechanisms. Evolution is presented as a concise theory (of neo-Darwinism) when in actuality it is a concept with numerous nested theories, hypotheses and some attempts to define evolutionary laws.

Some of the most vocal pro-evolution scientists, such as Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, have directly challenged Darwinian ideas such as gradual changes in organisms and evolution acting on the level of the organism. Both also have apologetically embraced Darwin and say their ideas do not challenge but complete Darwin's ideas as a part of the so called "modern synthesis."

There seems to be a false correlation between facts and absolute truth. The significance of natural selection (the hallmark of Darwinian evolution) is an excellent example. A 30-year study of Darwin's finches revealed that natural selection and Darwinian evolution could be demonstrated during the study; however, in the final analysis, evolution was unpredictable. So natural selection may be a fact, but the significance of natural selection in evolution is being challenged by orthogenetic evidence of random and neutral genetic change and neutral evolution.

Art Beall, Evans

(Editor's note: The writer is retired from the Medical College of Georgia's Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics.)