Evolution and Devolution

The primary definition of evolution found in the English dictionary is:

“e·volve [əˈvôlv, əˈvälv, ɪˈvɒlv, ɪˈvɔlv, ɪˈvɒlv]

Descent with modification from preexisting species: cumulative inherited change in a population of organisms through time leading to the appearance of new forms: the process by which new species or populations of living things develop from preexisting forms through successive generations.”

The Merriam_Webster dictionary defines it as: “to produce by natural evolutionary processes.”

The adverb form of evolve is evolutionarily.

Those definitions do not say that evolution is always change in a positive way, yet that is how most of us think of it. There is also the opposite of evolution, which is devolution, defined as: “descent or degeneration to a lower or worse state.” While “devolution” is generally not used to mean the opposite of evolution, it should be, because it happens.

Synonyms and Foreign Words

The Thesaurus says some synonyms for evolve are, grow, expand, emerge, and mature, yet none of those mean exactly the same thing.
evolve comes from the Latin word ēvolvere. In Spanish, it is evolucionar. In French, évoluer, and in Japanese, shinka (進化).

Even words evolve into new words.

Are we still Evolving?

From an article in Popular Science:

“Noted public figures like David Attenborough have previously claimed that human evolution is over, but many researchers studying human evolution firmly disagree. We know that humans have altered our environment in innumerable ways–changing the very air, water, and soil that we rely on as the most successful “ecosystem engineers” on Earth. It can be easy, amid all that change, to assume that we’ve conquered biology and eliminated the effects of evolution and natural selection on our species. But that’s not what the science says.”

“Of course humans are still evolving,” says Jason Hodgson, an anthropologist and evolutionary geneticist at Anglia Ruskin University in England. “All living organisms that are in a population are evolving all the time.”

“Humans are definitely still evolving,” agrees John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Humans are still evolving, as are virtually all other populations of organisms,” says Stephen Stearns, an emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University.

Yet the way that evolution acts on our species may not be what you imagine. In biological terms, evolution is a change in gene variant (a.k.a. “allele”) frequency in a population over time. It is not a force directing a species’ trajectory towards a certain goal. However, biologists can still observe human evolution in action and identify recent examples of it.”

Does Evolution Take Millions of Years or Does it Happen in Sudden Bursts?

If evolution happens gradually as genetic changes are passed from one generation to the next, you’d expect the fossil record to show the transitional forms along the way. But it doesn’t always do that.

In some cases, the fossil record clearly shows a pattern of gradual change from ancestor to descendent. But more often, it seems to show jumps from one species to another with no transitional forms in between.

“It’s quite rare to actually have examples in the fossil record where something has changed gradually in one particular direction over a long period of time,” says Melanie Hopkins, curator and chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History.

Why Evolution often favors Small Animals

Small really does seem to be beautiful in evolutionary terms. The largest dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammals may look impressive but these giants are vastly outnumbered by microscopic bacteria and single-celled algae and fungi. Small organisms are also ancient and incredibly resilient.

Large animals tend to take longer to grow and reach maturity, so they reproduce more slowly. While mice have a short generation time (how long it takes a newborn to grow up and give birth) of about 12 weeks, while elephants take close to 25 years.

Large species tend to evolve more slowly and may be less able to cope with longer-term changes in the physical and biological environment. Larger organisms also tend to fare worse at mass extinction events. Nothing much bigger than a domestic cat survived the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Snails on a tiny rocky islet off the Swedish coast evolved before scientists’ eyes. The marine snails were reintroduced after a toxic algal bloom wiped them out from the skerry. While the researchers intentionally brought in a distinct population of the same snail species, these evolved to strikingly resemble the population lost over 30 years prior. This seems to indicate that location effects evolution. It also shows that evolution can happen rapidly in some circumstances.

Natural Selection

Most of us know that as living things evolve, they take on traits that help them thrive in their home environments. But how are certain traits “chosen” for future generations, and how are others cast aside? It all comes down to natural selection, or the process by which species pass on the characteristics that enable them to survive. The idea is that changes occur randomly, but only the ones that have a positive effect on the life of the plant or animal continue, while the ones that lower their ability to survive disappear.

Man-Made Selection

Similar to natural selection, humans force evolution on certain life forms, both animals and plants. For example, few people realize that cabbage (all varieties), broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi have all evolved from the common mustard plant due to man’s intervention in the process. And many dog species have been created intentionally by humans using crossbreeding to get the desired results.

Darwin

We can’t discuss evolution without mentioning Charles Darwin. Darwin spent years studying plants and animals and formed the theory known as Darwinism. Wikipedia says this about it:

“Darwinism is a term used to describe a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others. The theory states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual’s ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.”

It is rarely mentioned in articles about Darwin that he worked with Alfred Russel Wallace and that Wallace disagreed with some of Darwin’s conclusions.

While The Theory of evolution from Darwin and others is widely accepted, many in America still reject it.

Gregor Mendel

While Darwin’s theory explained evolution, it didn’t account for heredity. The Augustinian friar Gregor Johann Mandel added that part into the theory of evolution. Though farmers had known for millennia that crossbreeding of animals and plants could favor certain desirable traits, Mendel’speaplant experiments conducted between 1856 and 1863 established many of the rules of heredity, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance. Mendel worked with seven characteristics of pea plants: plant height, pod shape and color, seed shape and color, and flower position and color. Taking seed color as an example, Mendel showed that when a true-breeding yellow pea and a true-breeding green pea were cross-bred, their offspring always produced yellow seeds. However, in the next generation, the green peas reappeared at a ratio of 1 green to 3 yellow. To explain this phenomenon, Mendel coined the terms “recessive” and “dominant” in reference to certain traits. So it is sometimes more than just natural selection of random mutations.

Spiritual Evolution

The biggest problem with the theories of evolution from Darwin, Mendel, and most others in the field, is that they neglect that man, as well as other beings, have a spirit as well as a physical body. Most of the time, what seems to be positive evolution on the physical side, is negative evolution (devolution) on the spiritual side. With the human species especially, as we have for many centuries developed more and more densely physical bodies, we have lost our connection with our spiritual Self. Fortunately, that is beginning to change as a small, but growing, number of people are awakening to the need to develop their spiritual side as much as their physical side, if not more. The Sun of Righteousness that now shines down upon us is aiding that process.