Flying Over The Tops Of Trees, Part I.

I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape on the subject of evolution. Merely mentioning the word causes turned heads or looks of disgust or judgment. Even those who express genuine interest in the subject often have wrong or even harmful understandings of the subject. Fact is, biology is so complicated that in order to understand it you must commit yourself to a study of biology and evolution. It is important to study evolution when learning biology. Evolution provides the context under which biology operates. If biology is a tree, then evolution is a magnificent forest.

Of course the standard analogy is to use Darwin's "Tree of Life". It is such a beautiful analogy with its thick branches, representing groups of organisms of similar descent, reaching out towards smaller branches decending to the very ends where it terminates in the form of buds, leaves and flowers, each representing a different species. The end of all biology of course, is to fill out this tree. To solve, with complete confidence, all the mechanisms of biology and its history. History being the last dimension popularized by Darwin (with the first solid science of it).

But WHY does this invoke fear and panic in so many people? Do they fear a conflict with their religion? Do they rage against that which they don't understand? Let me calm your fears! Science seeks only to understand our universe, a universe we discovered after the fact of its creation. Your God, that which we cannot know, could have created anything, so why is it so implausible that what was created is a universe in which selection, inheritance, and mutation are natural and necessary processes for he sustainment of life in an environment with limited resources?