[extropy-chat] Reverse Evolution ?

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Ian Goddard
> Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 2:58 PM
> To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> Subject: [extropy-chat] Reverse Evolution ?
> 
> Last week a news report proposed that because several
> members of a family walk on all fours and use very
> limited language that we have a cause of "backward
> evolution" toward our primate ancestors. [1] Say
> what?! The claim was published in the International
> Journal of Neuroscience... It seems others are skeptical too. [2] ~Ian


A big part of the reason why so many report not believing in evolution is
that it is so widely misunderstood.  This has been shown in surveys, where
test takers reported having learned more about evolution by taking the
survey than in any other exposure to the discipline.  Evolution is widely
caricatured by fish crawling out on land, becoming an ape then a human, as
if evolution has a particular direction.  Cartoon images can have enormous
impact, as we have seen.  Stephen J. Gould has written extensively on this
misconception and its affect on the public.

As time goes on, modern humans have ever more disciplines to master, yet a
constant or possibly decreasing amount of time devoted to learning.  Your
mission, should you decide to accept it, is to explain evolutionary theory
to the layman using the amount of text that would fit on one side of one
sheet of printer paper, using language not out of reach of the average
eighth grader.  Ready set go.  

spike