Time For A Reality Check

There has been much news lately about what should be taught in public schools regarding evolution. This subject is contentious partly because it is misunderstood and poorly defined. What exactly is biological evolution? In popular culture, evolution is not just characterized by adaptation within a species but by growth into more advanced species. A small business evolves into a large business. A timid local basketball player evolves into a national star. Likewise, the popular notion of evolution implies growth, as in evolving from invertebrates to vertebrates, amphibians to mammals and dinosaurs to birds.
Could natural selection produce these kinds of results? Natural selection, often stated as the survival of the fittest, is a scientific principle that can be tested and verified in the laboratory. Microbiologists see its workings as antibacterial drugs are applied to cultures of bacteria. Through scientific studies it can be observed that certain strains of bacteria survive the harsh invasion of the anti-bacterial substance. They survived, but is that real, vertical evolution or just minor variation? Is it evolution if they survive other antibacterial drugs? Evolutionists would say this is an example of evolution in action. Certainly it is an example of natural selection in action, but do the bacteria grow into a higher-level organism? No!
Natural selection, mutations and genetic drift bring but minor change, not new information; not growth, as in bacteria becoming som ...