Evolution and Unintelligent Design

1. The Ionians
2. Unintelligent Design: Evolution is make-do, and not a design
3. Inherited Personality Traits
4. Continued and Accelerated Human Evolution
5. Artificially Created Life and Natural Life Both Evolve (Spiegelman's monster)
6. Religion: Creationism and Intelligent Design
7. Artificial Evolution: Human achievements prove the principals of evolution

The Ionians

2500 years ago there arose a society scattered across certain Greek islands that devoted itself to accurate study and produced the great Library of Alexandria. So long ago, they deduced from various observations that animals must have evolved from earlier animals:

“Anaximander of Miletus [was an early scientist from Ionia]. For ages men had used sticks to club and spear one another. Anaximander used one to measure time. He was the first person in Greece to make a sundial, a map of the known world and a celestial globe that showed the patterns of the constellations. [...] He argued that we are so helpless at birth that, if the first human infants had been put into the world on their own, they would immediately have died. From this Anaximander concluded that human beings arose from other animals with more self-reliant newborns: He proposed the spontaneous origin of life in mud, the first animals being fish covered with spines. Some descendents of these fishes eventually abandoned the water and moved to dry land, where they evolved into other animals [...]. He believed in an infinite number of worlds, all inhabited, and all subject to cycles of dissolution and regeneration. 'Nor', as Saint Augustine ruefully complained, 'did he, any more than Thales, attribute the cause of all this ceaseless activity to a divine mind.' [...]

He taught that there was once a much greater variety of living things on the Earth, but that many races of beings 'must have been unable to beget and continue their kind. For in the case of every species that exists, either craft or courage or speed has from the beginning of its existence protected and preserved it.' In this attempt to explain the lovely adaptation of organisms to their environments, Empedocles, like Anaximander and Democritus, clearly anticipated some aspects of Darwin's great idea of evolution by natural selection.”

"Cosmos" by Carl Sagan, p199

I have already written on the demise of the Ionians, so I will leave you with a quotation:

“Such astounding wisdom backed up by studious thinking and experimentation could have launched the world into the modern era. But it didn't.

Rising superstition, the taking of slaves and the growth of monotheistic religion led to the demise of scientific enterprise. The culture changed. The last great scientist of Alexandria, Hypatia, was born in 370CE at a time when the "growing Christian Church was consolidating its power and attempting to eradicate pagan influence and culture". Cyril, the Archbishop of Alexandria, considered Hypatia to be a symbol of the learning and science which he considered to be pagan. "In the year 415, on her way to work she was set upon by a fanatical mob of Cyril's parishioners. They dragged her from her chariot, tore off her clothes, and, armed with abalone shells, flayed her flesh from her bones. Her remains were burned, her works obliterated, her name forgotten. Cyril was made a saint".

The last remains of the Alexandrian Library were destroyed not long after Hypatia's death. Nearly all the books and documents were completely destroyed. The Western Dark Ages had begun, and all knowledge and science was forgotten in the West for over a thousand years.”

"The Scientific Method: Ionia, 6th century BCE" by Vexen Crabtree (2006)

Astronomers, mathematicians and chemists had to recover from the dark ages before the theory of evolution was once again worked out by Darwin and his contemporaries.

Unintelligent Design
Evolution is make-do, and not a 'design'

Our evolution, to our present state, is like that of other animals: a path of many misadventures. What was once useful and an advantage, can at later times become a nuisance. These wrong-turns vary from the interesting to the deadly. For example, professors Bear, Connors and Paradiso in their book "Neuroscience" (1996) explain that the hypothalamus evolved to give us goose pimples when we are cold and call it "a futile attempt to fluff up your nonexistent fur - a reflexive remnant from our hairier ancestors"₁. Prof. Richard Dawkins, the foremost evolutionary biologist, supplies a few more serious examples:

“Many of our human ailments, from lower back pain to hernias, prolapsed uteruses and our susceptibility to sinus infections, result directly from the fact that we now walk upright with a body that was shaped over hundreds of millions of years to walk on all fours.”

"The God Delusion" by Prof. Richard Dawkins, p134

Another symptom of the blindfolded nature of evolution is the presence of masses of unused and out-of-use genes; results of mutations and changes that have rendered them useless and ignored by our bodies. Genetic junk. Sometimes, entire organs ('vestigial organs') are no longer required by a species.

“Vestigial characteristics are still another form of morphological evidence, illuminating to contemplate because they show that the living world is full of small, tolerable imperfections. Why do male mammals (including human males) have nipples? Why do some snakes (notably boa constrictors) carry the rudiments of a pelvis and tiny legs buried inside their sleek profiles? Why do certain species of flightless beetle have wings, sealed beneath wing covers that never open? Darwin raised all these questions, and answered them, in The Origin of Species. Vestigial structures stand as remnants of the evolutionary history of a lineage.”

National Geographic (2004)₂

My favourite phrase to describe all of this waste, inefficiency and bad design is one I picked up from Paul Kurtz in the Skeptical Inquirer:

“The existence of vestigial organs in many species, including the human species, is hardly evidence for design; for they have no discernable function. And the extinction of millions of species on the planet is perhaps evidence for unintelligent design.”

Paul Kurtz (2006)₃

Inherited Personality Traits

Much of the data on what personality traits are inherited comes from the studies of identical twins that were raised from birth in different families. This means that the genetic component of their development can be statistically examined, as their environments are different so similarities in character cannot be attributed to similarities in upbringing. Another method to improve this data is to balance the results according to the socio-economic group of the different parents. Large-scale studies have generally shown that in total, about 50% of the variation in self-reported personality is due to heredity₄. As part of this general trend, some traits are more inherited than others.

It is not only the standard personality traits that are partially inherited, but, distortions, dysfunctions and abnormal traits can be inherited too. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is 'partially' inherited₉, panic disorders and schizophrenia are generally inherited, and bipolar disorder is strongly inherited (see the chart below).

Trait	Extent Inherited Genetically	Sources
Personality in general	50% inherited4.
Leadership	60% inherited5.
Shyness	Strongly linked to heredity5.
Fears and phobias	Primarily inherited5.
Panic disorder	Generally inherited6.
Bipolar disorder	72% inherited7.
Schizophrenia	Transmitted genetically8.
Autism Spectrum Disorders	90% inherited14.

Aggression, neatness, social closeness, and intellectual achievement all depend mostly on upbringing (only 33 to 48 percent is contributed by inheritance)₅. After presenting information on the studies of alcoholism and drug abuse, Prof. Dean shows us that responses to alcohol and drugs are partially inherited:

“Physiological and biochemical responses to alcohol and drug use are at least in part inherited. A wide range of evidence, from adoption and twin studies to the identification of biological markers for responses to drug and alcohol use, have supported the findings that certain traits associated with use are inherited.”

"Chaos and Intoxication" by Prof. Alan Dean (1997) p20.

Note that responses to the environment can be inherited. So, certain inheritable traits will only show up in certain life circumstances.

Continued and Accelerated Human Evolution

The Human species has reached a unique evolutionary point, where our behaviour is so complex and intelligent that we understand the processes of evolution that resulted in our creation. We are still evolving; and although E. O. Wilson stated that cultural evolution is now more important than biological, sexual selection still has a powerful role in the continued evolution of humanity [Dawkins 1976]. This means that the driving force behind genetic evolution - who we decide to have children with - is still operating. Elements of sexual selection such as breast size, hip width and physical appearance are still providing evolutionary pressure on our genes. But, with increasing levels of cosmetic surgery and other tricks, E. O. Wilson may be right sometime in the future: through the manipulation of our appearance we might begin to overcome the (misguided) natural process of sexual selection. The best hope we have is that we will learn to manipulate our own genes ourselves, and therefore make wiser choices than the haphazard legacy of natural evolution so far.

The National Academy of Sciences published results that indicate that not only is Humanity still evolving, but that in the last 5000 years we have evolved faster than we ever have since we split from chimpanzees 6 million years ago₁₂. "They found that at least 7% of human genes have undergone recent evolution. The changes include lighter skin and blue eyes in northern Europe and partial resistance to diseases such as malaria among some African populations"₁₂, and, a lactose-tolerance gene is now widespread across Europe. In the future, the researchers think that evolutionary pressure will mean the spread of genes that allow mothers to start families later in life.

One of the causes of our accelerated evolution include, they say, is the surge in global population which allows more mutations to occur. The increase in travel and globalisation means that good mutations will move through the world population quicker, a process which the researchers say will also lead to a reduction in genetic differences between races, as African blacks, Chinese, Europeans, etc, have become less isolated populations.

Artificially Created Life and Natural Life Both Evolve (Spiegelman's monster)

A famous experiment in the late 1960s used a small RNA virus named Q_B to provide proof-of-principal that artificially created life can evolve and converge with natural life: and both can be created from inorganic chemistry:

“A virus is simply a strand of DNA or RNA encased in a protein coat. Although viruses store genetic information, they cannot replicate on their own. To do so they invade cells and hijack their reproductive apparatus, adapting it to make more viruses. [...] The Q_B virus doesn't need anything as complicated as a cell in order to replicate: a test tube full of suitable chemicals is enough. The experiment, conducted by Sol Spiegelman of the University of Illinois, consisted of introducing the viral RNA into a medium [... to] let it multiply. He then decanted some of that RNA intro yet another solution and so on, in a series of steps.

The effect of allowing unrestricted replication was that the RNA which multiplied fastest won out, and got passed on to the 'next generation' in the series. The decanting operation therefore replaced, in a highly accelerated way, the basic competitive process of Darwinian evolution [...].

Spiegelman's results were spectacular. As anticipated, copying errors occurred during replication. Relieved of the responsibility of working for a living and the need to manufacture protein coats, the spoon-fed RNA strands began to slim down, shedding parts of their genome that were no longer required [...]. Those RNA molecules that could replicate the fastest soon came to predominate for the simple reason that they out-multiplied the competition. After 74 generations, what started out as an RNA strand with 4500 nucleotide bases ended up as a dwarf genome with only 220 bases. This raw replicator with no frills attached could replicate very fast. It was dubbed Spiegelman's monster.”

"The Origin of Life" by Paul Davies (2003)₁₃

An even better experiment followed in 1974. Manfred Eigen and colleagues found that massive replication could be had by adding just one virus instead of a whole load of them. They experimented with the initial virus, artificially slimming it down to find out what the bare minimum was that they could insert in order to stimulate mass replication. They slimmed down what they added a great deal, and stumbled upon something absolutely stunning.

“Replicating strands of RNA were still produced when not a single molecule of viral RNA was added! [...] They were witnessing for the first time the spontaneous synthesis of RNA strands from their basic building blocks. Analysis revealed that under some experimental conditions the created RNA resembled Spiegelman's monster.”

"The Origin of Life" by Paul Davies (2003)₁₃

Summary

Spiegelman experimented on living things and obtained a virus called Spiegelman's monster by accelerating the process of evolution. Further experimenters produced practically the same simple virus from non-living matter.

• Living and non-living matter can both create life, spontaneously, given the right ingredients.

• Such life is subject to evolution.

Note that this was not obtained from the mix of chemicals that actually produced life as we know it; it is merely a proof-of-principal that evolving life can arise spontaneously from building blocks. In reality, the chemical make-up of life's first environment would have been different and occurred in a massively hotter environment.

Religion: Creationism and Intelligent Design

The USA has sprouted an anomaly: In the world's most technologically advanced country there are a growing number of people who disbelieve in evolution, carbon-dating, geology, genetics and a number of other sciences that underpin evolution. The cause of such disbelief is religious.

“The findings are based on several recent Gallup Polls conducted in May and June, showing that a significant number of Americans have doubts about the theory of evolution. The new poll data suggest that Americans' religious behaviour is highly correlated with beliefs about evolution. Those who attend church frequently are much less likely to believe in evolution than are those who seldom or never attend.”

Skeptical Inquirer (2007)₁₅

Andrew Heywood places this movement in a political context:

“There is a significant religious element in the conservative new right, especially in the USA. [...] Many of these were associated with the 'born again' Christian movement and in effect constituted a 'Christian new right'. Moral Majority, founded by Jerry Falwell in 1979 and supported by Ronald Reagan and powerful Southern senators such as Jessie Helms, acted as an umbrella organization for this movement. Since the 1980s its principal energies have been devoted to the campaign against abortion. [...] Homosexuality, pornography, premarital sex and, in the USA at least, the teaching of Darwinian theories of evolution rather than Biblical 'creationism' have also been castigated as morally 'bad'.”

"Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)₁₆

We already saw at the beginning of this page how religious superstition eradicated the Ionians, who first stumbled across evidences for evolution 2500 years ago. As to why religious types have been so anti-evolution, I do not really know. After the USA, it is only Africa that has such virulent anti-evolutionists. Richard Leakey, who was once the director of Kenya's national museum, had to fight regularly to keep the descriptions of fossils and skeletons accurate. Christians vandalized, threatened and sometimes won the right to have exhibits removed.

Unfortunately such people are not content to merely believe strange things. They want others to believe them too. They have fought battles in the USA - and won some of them - to get their religious ideas taught in school. There are even 'faith schools' in the UK who teach that the Universe is less than 10 thousand years old [Crabtree 2003₁₇]. But to push creationism they have to ignore mountains of evidence for evolution from many different strands of science, not just biology.

“Anti-evolutionists are also trying to convince students to reject large chunks of well-established physics, chemistry, astronomy, anthropology, and geology. [...] Today the United States is being confronted with large numbers of scientifically ignorant, politically active Christians who are locked into ultra-religious, anti-scientific views and who want to force these views on others through our elected officials, our courts, and our schools.”

Charles L. Rulon in Skeptical Inquirer (2007)₁₈

What most of these Christians instead believe in is creationism or intelligent design theory (ID). Although not all of them believe in the actual Adam and Eve story, they do all share a belief that God designed all the species exactly as they are now, and that evolution is not the force that shapes life. What they think the use of genes are, I have no idea. As 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are now utterly extinct, it turns out that God is not such a great designer anyway.

Fundamentalists tried for a while to pass ID off as a different theory to creationism, but their bluff has been called and a series of legal defeats has seen the establishment recognize that ID is religious myth, not science. The forty-seven members states of the Council of Europe resolved against the teaching of creationism, and emplored that scientific education is important and should not be mixed with religious beliefs₁₉.

Artificial Evolution: Human achievements prove the principals of evolution

If for half a dozen generations, no-one in the world had children with a blond mate, before long there would be no blond human beings. This is how strong the forces of sexual selection can be. If everyone in the world thought cats cute and bred the fluffiest, most child-like and domicile ones, Humans could create a whole new species. In fact, that is exactly how the Egyptians created the domesticated cat from the wild one. Nature did not produce our feline friends; we did. It took them hundreds of years to accomplish what nature does over tens and hundreds of thousands of years. How was it was possible for Egyptians to turn wild cats into a new species of domestic cats? Because they commandeered natural selection for their own ends. The result is artificial selection. It is the same process that exists in nature, but with the intelligence and willpower of humankind behind the driving wheel, instead of blind mother nature. Carl Sagan furnishes us with more examples of artificial selection:

“Ten thousand years ago, there were no dairy cows or ferret hounds or large ears of corn. When we domesticated the ancestors of these plants and animals - sometimes creatures who looked quite different - we controlled their breeding. We made sure that certain varieties, having properties we consider desirable, preferentially reproduced. [...] Our corn, or maize, has been bred for ten thousand generations to be more tasty and nutritious than its scrawny ancestors; indeed, it is so changed that it cannot even reproduce without human intervention. [...]

In less than ten thousand years, domestication has increased the weight of wood grown by sheep from less than one kilogram of rough hairs to ten or twenty kilograms of uniform, fine down; or the volume of milk given by cattle during a lactation period from a few hundred to a million cubic centimetres. If artificial selection can make such major changes in so short a period of time, what must natural selection, working over billions of years, be capable of? [...] If humans can make new varieties of plants and animals, must not nature do so also? [...] The answer is all the beauty and diversity of the biological world. Evolution is a fact, not a theory.”

"Cosmos" by Carl Sagan (1995), p37-40

Our creation of cats, maize, the green carrot, cattle and sheep, and our deepening understanding of genetics is not to be feared. Nature has shown us how to combine genes to produce children; we have shown nature how much better, more nutritious, and safer, the animal and plant kingdom can be if only it is guided intelligently. Between nature and nurture, we have already created a genetically engineered world. We merely done it so slowly that no particular generation of humans was particularly shocked by the process.

Now things have changed.

We used our minds to domesticate animals and produce plants with unnatural yields. The method we used was to control the spread of genes in the chosen species, continually improving it. In this millennium, the method is the same but our tools are being updated. Instead of manipulating the spread of genes through sexual selection, we can change them from inception using genetic engineering. We can genes that produce Vitamin C in one plant and import them into another; we can eliminate hereditary disease through genetic screening. We have made the present, and we will make the future. To say that we shouldn't is to say that we should no longer have cats and dogs, nutritious corn, or wool. None of these things have heralded the end of the world, and neither will the things to come!