What is the theory of evolution?

Tree of Life

The theory of evolution, in its current form, asserts that the transformation of species (the evolution of life) depends on five factors:

1.      Spontaneous variations in the genome (mutations, genetic recombination, and other events that modify the genome).

2.      Spontaneous variations in the environment. This factor is often overlooked, as the environment is usually quite stable, although sudden changes sometimes occur that can have huge consequences.

3.      Inheritance, through which the variations that occur as a result of the first factor are passed on to offspring and are subject to the action of natural selection.

4.      Natural selection, which means that those individuals whose genome is best adapted to the environment will leave more offspring (at least statistically).

5.      The basic laws of the universe, which are currently represented by quantum theory and the theory of relativity.

Is man just an animal?

Theodosius Dobzhansky

Modern biologists frequently say that man is not special, that we are just a species among many. Thus, for instance, Colin Tudge writes this:

Phylogenetically we are an outpost, a tiny figment of life, just as Earth is a cosmological nonentity that no other intelligent life-form in the Universe would bother to put in their celestial maps.

(The variety of life, Oxford University Press, 2000).

This is just the indiscriminate application of a pseudo-scientific dogma that few biologists would dare contradict, which can be expressed in one of the following equivalent ways:

• All species of living beings are equivalent; no one is superior to the others.
• There are no criteria that make it possible to compare the importance of different species.
• Man is not superior to chimps, ants, bacteria...
• Evolution has no direction.