THE SCOPES TRIAL
The scopes trial is also famously known as the scopes monkey trial and was a trial which involved the state of Tennessee against John Thomas Scopes. The charge against scopes was teaching evolution. Apparently back in 1925 it was illegal to teach anything about evolution in schools that were funded by the state. Back then people believed in the divinity of the bible. Anything in the bible was considered truth that was incontestable by any human being irrespective of the evidence at hand. Teaching evolution was tantamount to blasphemy against morally accepted truths by the people. The Buttler act made it especially difficult for evolutionists to pass on their ideologies. According to this act it was illegal for any teacher to teach or even mention evolution in a school that was funded by the government. Thomas Scopes was found guilty of violation of this act and was fined a fine of a hundred dollars which was the standard minimum back at the time.
The concept of evolution was brought to the table by Charles Darwin. Evolution involves changes in the inherent characteristics prominent in living organisms over an extended period of time and running through successive generations. The diversity in living organisms all over the planet is attributed to evolution by the scientific community. This diversity ranges from species to individual organisms and even to the very building blocks of these organisms which are proteins and DNA. According to the evolutionary theory the planet earth dates back to about 3.8 billion years. In these years various changes have occurred not only on the planet itself but also on the organisms that live on the planet. These changes have resulted in the modern forms of life we know today. According to this theory evolution is a never ending process. Organisms are ever changing so as to be able to adapt and be more suited for their environment and predicament (Quammen, p.92).
The most interesting aspect of the evolutionary theory is perhaps its explanation of the origin of life. Unlike religion the evolutionary theory rules out the presence of the divinity of creation. Evolution refutes the presence of a creator who gave rise to life on the planet as we know it. According to the evolutionary theory life is attributed to extremely high energetic chemical reactions. These highly energetic chemical reactions are thought to have given rise to a self-replicating molecule. This is thought to have occurred around four billion years ago though this is just an estimate. The actual date or time period in which these high energy chemical reactions gave rise to these self-replicating molecules is not known with absolute certainty. According to the evolutionary theory the last common ancestor of life is thought to have been in existence around 3.5 billion years ago (Smith, p.49). This means that all living organisms have a common ancestry and can trace their roots back to a single common life form that existed four billion years ago. Thus the beginning of life on earth is believed to have included self-replicating molecules for example RNA and the eventual assembly of very simple cells into more complex structures of life.
All organisms on earth can trace their origin back to a common gene pool. The specie currently in existence is the result of billions of years of evolution. Their diversity is believed to be a very long series of specialization processes and events involving extinctions. At first the common ancestry of all organisms on earth was attributed to four very simple facts about all living organisms. The first fact is the geographic distribution of organisms all over the planet. The geographic distribution of organisms on the planet fails to be explained by local adaptation. The second fact is that all organisms on earth share certain morphological similarities. Though the life forms are diverse there is no set of completely unique life forms or organisms which share absolutely no similarities with the other forms of life and organisms on the planet earth. The third fact is that all organisms on the planet earth have certain vestigial traits. These vestigial traits can be traced back to ancestral traits. The interesting fact is that most of these vestigial traits were actually functioning ancestral traits. This means that there existed previous forms of life with similarities to the presently existing forms of life with the only difference being a number of traits which are vestigial in the currently existent forms of life. The fourth fact that fuels the validity of the common ancestry assertion of the evolutionary theory is the fact that all organisms on the planet earth can be classified using their traits into a clearly visible hierarchy of group which are nested. These hierarchical nested groups are very similar to the simple family tree thus there exists a family tree for all forms of life on the planet and like all family trees this one also leads up to a common ancestry (Smith , p.71).
The evolutionary theory brings about the concept of natural selection. Natural selection involves creatures adapting to their environment in order to survive. Charles Darwin explained that natural selection could force a land mammal to turn into a whale. He gave an example of the North American black bears. These North American black bears feed on insects. They catch these insects by swimming in water and keeping their mouths wide open as they do so. Charles Darwin further explained that this species of North American black bears might be forced to be more aquatic by natural selection. This natural selection might alter the structure of the bears and their habitats. The altering in structures might include a next species of bears with wider and larger mouths more suited for their feeding habits. The result would be the bears changing in structure until eventually they emerged as monstrous whales which are more suited for swimming and with an even larger mouth with which to catch even more insects.
Natural selection is thus the process by which organisms undergo changes over elongated periods of time. Such changes are as a result of changes in behavioral traits or physical traits that are inheritable. These changes in heritable traits result in changes in the occurring future generations of the organisms. These changes are more prominent in the occurring generations than they are in the ancestral generations. This means that the occurring generations are thus more suited to their environment in terms of physical characteristics and behavioral traits than the older generations. These changes allow organisms with a better sense of adaptation to their environment to have a better and higher chance of survival than the predecessors. The higher chance of survival of organisms’ means these organisms will be able to give rise to even more off springs. Thus this ensures the continued survival of the species and even better adaptation in terms of survival. Natural selection can cause changes in a given species in a very small way. These seemingly small changes can have profound changes in future generations of the species. Such changes can include complete change in size or complete change in color over several future generations. This phenomenon is known as microevolution. Given an extensive period of time natural selection is capable of a much wider variety of changes that are very different from the original species. Natural selection can even go as far as to create an entirely new species which is completely different from the original species except for a few common traits. A common example is natural selection turning apes into modern humans, amphibious mammals can turn into whales and dinosaurs can turn into birds capable of great fetes of flight much unlike their ancestry which was more prominent on land.
Natural selection is however a very complex process. Apes do not just magically turn into human beings or dinosaurs into birds by coincidence. The changes that make natural selection a tangible reality are both behavioral changes and physical changes. These changes occur at the level of genes and DNA. These changes that occur at the level of genes and DNA are known as mutations. In most instances mutations are caused by errors which occur in DNA replication, as a result of damage caused by radiation or as a result of chemical processes and changes. Mutations can however also be induced deliberately so as to enable an organism to adapt quickly to an environment that is changing very rapidly. In most instances where mutations occur they are harmful to the organism or are neutral and do not have any significant effects on the organism. In certain circumstances however mutations can prove to be very beneficial to the organism. In such instances the mutation becomes even more prevalent in the next generation of the organism. The mutation will thus spread throughout the population of the organism (Smith, p.61).
Evolution tries to explain how whales changed from land mammals to the very large water creatures we know today. Evolutionists claim that random mutations might have resulted in one whale having its nostril placed further up its head than other whales. Such a whale was better adapted to the marine lifestyle as it did not have to constantly surface for air. Such whales with their nostrils up their heads would have been significantly more successful in comparison to other whales. These whales would then give rise to more and more off springs with the same mutation. In the recurrent generations more and more mutations occurred resulting in the nostrils of the whales being pushed further and further up the heads of the whaled. This process continued until whales developed the blowholes that are a common trait with all whales of modern times. As the whales no longer used their legs for walking and running these structures also changed in accordance with their environmental needs. The front legs of the whales became flippers as these were more useful in swimming and navigation in water than ordinary legs. The hind legs of the whales disappeared as the whales found decreasing use for them in this new marine environment. With the arising need to move through water more swiftly and with greater ease and navigation the bodies of whales became more streamlined. They also changed and developed tail flukes as these were very necessary in their navigation through water.
The theory of evolution also entails adaptation. Adaptation is a process by which organisms become much better adapted to their environment and to their habitat. Adaptation often depends on the emergence of new traits in the new species of the organisms. Adaptations come about as a result of extensive natural selection. An example of adaptation can be derived from the teeth of horses. The teeth of horses had to undergo changes which enabled the horses to grind grass. The absence of this adaptation would mean that the horses would not be able to effectively and comfortably feed on grass. Adaptedness is also a term associated with adaptation. Adaptedness is the current state of an organism in terms of the level to which the organism is adapted to its environment and current habitat. Adaptedness can also be defined as the degree to which a given organism has the capability to live and also the capability to reproduce in a given habitat or a given set of habitats. Developmental patterns displayed by organisms are known as adaptive traits. These developmental patters displayed by organisms are very useful in the survival of these organisms. These adaptive traits enhance the probability that a given organism will survive in a given environment or a given habitat (Morgan, p.198). These adaptive traits also greatly increase the chances that a given organism will reproduce comfortably and freely in a given habitat or a given environment. Adaptation is therefore a process that can cause an organism to lose certain ancestral features or traits and gain new features and traits which are more in line with the habitat of the organism and the environmental conditions to which the organism is subject
Interactions between different organisms can result in either conflict between the organisms or cooperation between the organisms. An example of such interactions is the interaction between a prey and its predator or a host and a pathogenic organism. Interactions of such different species can actually result in both species developing various sets of adaptations that indeed match. In such an instance evolution in one species can result tremendous adaptations in the other species. These changes in that occur in the second species will in turn cause even more adaptations in the first species. There thus emerges a cycle in which one species evolves and the other adapts and the first species further adapts to the adaptations of the second species. This cycle is known as co-evolution. Thus co evolution is a continuous and never ending process in which organisms are in a constant state of change and adaptation to those changes (Futuyma, p.51).
Extinction is also another major aspect of the theory of evolution. Extinction is a process that involves the complete disappearance of an entire species of a particular organism. According to the theory of evolution all species usually appear as a result of speciation and they ultimately disappear as a result of extinction. Extinction can occur as a result of competition. If species are competing for limited resources and one species manages to out compete the other this results in species selection where the fitter species survives and the other undergoes extinction (Ridley, p.79).
Works Cited
Futuyma, Douglas J..Evolution. Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates, 2005. Print.
Gamlin, Linda. Evolution. London: Dorling Kindersley ;, 2003. Print.
Kimura, Motoo. The neutral theory of molecular evolution. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.
Küppers, Bernd. Molecular theory of evolution: outline of a physico-chemical theory of the origin of life. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2009. Print.
Morgan, Thomas Hunt. A critique of the theory of evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. Print.
Quammen, David. The reluctant Mr. Darwin: an intimate portrait of Charles Darwin and the making of his theory of evolution. New York: Atlas Books/Norton, 2006. Print.
Ridley, Mark. Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.
Smith, John. The theory of evolution. Canto ed. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.
