XXVII. CRITICISM AND DEFENCE OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES

As the validity of the theory of evolution is and, in the future, will continue to be a frequent target for attack by non-biologists, one of the last chapters of this book is devoted to a discussion of the validity of the theory of evolution, and specifically gives a survey of the commonest objections to its validity and the relevant counter-arguments against these objections.The opponents of evolution frequently do not greatly differentiate amongst theories of evolution as theories of the gradual development of species from a common ancestor and specific Darwinist or, to be more exact, Neodarwinist theories of evolution, which consider that the main motor driving this process is natural selection.In the vast majority of cases, however, they see their attack on Neodarwinism subjectively as an attack on the theory of evolution as such.Consequently, in this chapter we will also not differentiate strictly between general defense of the theory of evolution and the defense of the Darwinist or Neodarwinist theories of evolution.The development and mutual relationships amongst the individual theories of evolution will be discussed in the following chapter (XXVIII).

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The classical Darwinian theory of evolution can explain the evolution of adaptive traits only in asexual organisms. The frozen plasticity theory is much more general: It can also explain the origin and evolution of adaptive traits in both asexual and sexual organisms Read more
Draft translation from: Evoluční biologie, 2. vydání (Evolutionary biology, 2nd edition), J. Flegr, Academia Prague 2009. The translation was not done by biologist, therefore any suggestion concerning proper scientific terminology and language usage are highly welcomed. You can send your comments to flegratcesnet [dot] cz. Thank you.