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By Root 264 0

of the death of neo-Darwinism, Stanford University evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden proclaimed the demise of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Darwin said that males have stronger passions than females, that females are coy, and that females choose mates who are more attractive, vigorous, and well-armed. “People are surprised to learn how much sex animals have for purely social reasons (including same-sex sexuality in over 300 species of vertebrates),” Roughgarden explained, “and how many species have sex-role reversal in which the males are drab and the females are colorfully ornamented and compete for the attention of males, and that most plants and perhaps a quarter of all animal species have individuals that cannot be classified as male or female.”

In response to Roughgarden, University of Georgia evolutionary biologist Patricia Gowaty noted that Roughgarden is right in identifying the exceptions to Darwin’s theory and that there is much we still do not know, but added that since Darwin’s time much has been learned about mate selection and competition that should not be dismissed.

What Is Right in Evolutionary Theory?

At the end of the Evolution Summit the evolutionary biologist Douglas Futuyma, who wrote the book on evolution (literally—he is the author of the bestselling textbook on evolution biology), summed up the state of evolutionary theory today: “I am tempted to quote from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado: ‘I am right and you are right and all is right as right can be.’ ” Futuyma explained that he had agreements with everyone on some aspects of the various debates and controversies under discussion, but that in the end more research and more data will resolve some issues and open up new ones.

Here are a few additional controversies that are well within the borders of mainstream evolutionary science and that are experiencing vigorous debate:

1. If natural selection is the primary mechanism of evolution, what is the role of chance and contingency in the history of life?

2. What was the origin of organic molecules?

3. If DNA came from RNA, what was the first replicator that became RNA?

4. What is the target of natural selection? (Strict Darwinians believe that the individual organism is the sole target of selection; others hold that selection may occur below the individual at the level of genes, chromosomes, organelles, and cells, and above the individual at the level of groups, species, and multispecies communities.)

5. What is the relationship between evolution and embryological development (evo-devo)?

6. How much of modern human behavior can be explained by our evolutionary history (evolutionary psychology v. learning psychology; nature v. nurture)?

7. How much of modern society, culture, politics, and economics can be explained by our evolutionary past (evolutionary economics, Darwinian politics)?

Science’s greatest strength lies in the ability not only to withstand such buffeting, but actually to grow from it. Creationists, IDers, and outsiders contend that science is a cozy and insular club in which meetings are held to enforce agreement with the party line, to circle the wagons against any and all would-be challengers, and to achieve consensus on the most contentious issues. This conclusion cannot have been proposed by anyone who has ever attended a scientific conference. The World Summit on Evolution, like most scientific conferences, revealed a science rich in controversy and debate as well as data and theory. After a century and a half of such disputation, the theory of evolution has never been stronger.

EPILOGUE

Why Science Matters

I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or