Evolution
From Liberapedia
Evolution is the accepted scientific fact that a living organism will pass inheritable traits that are different from those of previous generations to its offspring, and that such traits can become increasingly prevalent or die out based on the fitness of their carriers to reproduce, to the point that after many generations the traits can become so different that an entirely distinct species is formed. In other words, evolution is the fact that random inheritable mutations, changing some traits in the organisms inheriting such mutations, will thrive or perish in the population based on Natural selection and other selective pressures, to the point where speciation occurs. It is observable, empirical fact that this can, does, and will happen.
This fact is a central component of the scientific Theory of Evolution that describes the random changes magnified through selective pressures that have caused the diversity of life that is seen today, with all species descending from common ancestors to the very first living organisms on Earth that appeared at least 3.5 billion years ago. Evolutionary fact has been proved, but the overarching Theory of Evolution is not something that can be proved in general (an important part of scientific epistemology that applies to all theories), but many testable statements are formulated from the theory (including evolution itself, which has been proven and is continuously re-proven), while other statements have likewise been disproven, both cases serving to increase the scope of the theory. The truth of the theory, as can be applied in the real world, is in its ability to make predictions and explain anomalies, for which it has an exceptionally sound record in the research literature.
As cannot be over-emphasized, evolution itself, as well as various related facts, have been proven repeatedly in laboratory conditions, often today as simply part of the preliminary trials to a biology experiment. It is undisputed among serious researchers. The Theory of Evolution as it pertains to the origin of species has overwhelming support through fossil and geological records and is generally also undisputed, but it would not be epistemologically correct to claim it is fact. However, the sheer weight of the evidence support evolutionary origins is a fact which conservatives nearly always deny or overlook, and this lack of common sense leads to either a perception of "controversy" or an overwhelming selective pressure to keep them away from our smart-people gene pool.
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History
Charles Darwin in the 19th Century formulated the concept of speciation induced by Natural Selection, leading to the proposal of the Theory of Evolution as an explanation for current, past, and future biodiversity. All this would be fine if he didn't insist on educating non-scientists about it, hoping to further the place of science in the world (honestly he should have kept all the science to himself and his friends so that the common people get no science and have to live off of scraps of superstition). His claim that humans, subject to the same evolutionary origins and pressures, are close cousins of modern primates and together descended from a common ancestor only several million years ago. Because conservatives, then and now, have a severe inferiority complex in which they have to be "special", not among their own species in a way that requires work or talent, but rather as a species as a whole, and as a planet. So they get pretty pissy when people go out saying that the Earth is not the center of the universe and that humans are basically smarter bipedal apes, and downright looney when people go out saying they can prove it.
At the time of Darwin's original theory, however, he had very little he could prove. Fossil evidence of early hominids was lacking at the time due to the virtual nonexistence of paleoanthropology, but more importantly Darwin had no known modus operandi – there was no known machinery for how traits were encoded and passed to offspring, and no method known of changing that code or those traits. However, the importance of formulating the theory was that there was now a solid groundwork for the pursuit of naturalist rigor in biology. Over the next century, cell theory, DNA and genetics, and radiation-induced mutations, were found and formulated into the growing theory. The theory, in turn, was strengthened through an ever-increasing amount of successful scientific inquiry inspired by its concepts. As such, the enthusiasm and general appeal in the scientific community around Darwin's theory became near-universal praise and acceptance by the beginning of the 20th Century.
Criticism and Controversy
Evolution has been challenged in recent times by conservatives, who criticize it for disagreeing with their 2000-year-old book of fairy tales. Though these stories are a best-seller, they cannot disprove an incontrovertible fact like evolution. They have made many attempts to discredit it, from dressing up normal conservatives in lab coats and having them proclaim evolution to be a falsity—even going so far as making them to suck in their beer gut—to trying to cover their fictional characters in the trappings of a scientific theory and pushing it as such, in the form of creationism. All of these have had no effect on mature, intelligent people, who know better than to believe something which goes against an incontrovertible fact. Unfortunately, no such person has ever been in a position of power at any point in known history.
For example, people who believe in Creationism have to say that the designer deliberately made chimpanzee DNA and human DNA 99.9% identical, probably to deceive us. It proves the fanatical idea of Intelligent Design to be exactly that: fanatical. The evidence either says humans evolved, or the designer is a liar and is not Good. 21st Century Neocons seems to understand less than even people far below Darwin's intelligence understood in the 19th Century.
