Ernst Mayrs What Evolution Is Essay - 1212 Words

Ernst Mayrs What Evolution Is When Ernst Mayr published his book, What Evolution Is, in 2001 it was hailed as a work of genius. The praise, replete with superlatives, ranged from elegant, enthralling, and provocative to clear, comprehensive, and very informative.1 From all appearances it intended to be the theory of evolution offered up to the common man for general consumption and enlightenment; it was what would put the evolution/creationism debate to rest once and for all. It neither fulfilled its own goals nor lived up to the acclaim received from the intellectual establishment. In order to assess the success of Mayrs book as a book for the people, it is necessary to examine just who these people are. Certainly†¦show more content†¦The theory (or fact- as Mayr would have it) of evolution represents a threat to the traditional identity of this region. This tension between science and tradition (whether real or perceived) has affected the education and upbringing of an entire region for so long that even now in this age of reason and scientific enlightenment, the debate continues. To understand the unique relationship between the South and evolution, one can look at the Scopes trail in 1925 and the recent controversy evolving the Georgia department of Education. These two cases illustrate the continuing friction between traditional American (Southern) culture and modern scientific thinking/ the intellectual community. Eighty years after Tennessee v. John Scopes, 1925, know to many as the Monkey Trial, many states south of the Mason-Dixon Line are still grappling with the same issues as the people of Dayton, Tennessee did in 1925. John Scopes, a young school teacher in the small community of Dayton, Tennessee, agreed to challenge the newly passed state law which forbade the teaching of evolution in public schools. He was tried and convicted for breaking this law and so became a martyr for science over ignorance. The trial was dubbed the trial of the century and tiny Dayton became the center of national attention. The trail was a battle between the forces of good and evil. Who was good and who was evil all depends on your pointShow MoreRelatedEssay on Ernst Mayrs What Evolution Is: Creationism vs Evolution1203 Words   |  5 PagesErnst Mayrs What Evolution Is: Creationism vs Evolution The Bible contends that God created the extant world, imposing order on the preexisting chaos. Darwins theory of evolution introduced another notion of the world, posing a great challenge to the Christian tenets. According to it, all organisms are not the creations of a supreme being, but have descended from a simple unicellular organism that somehow developed a lipid membrane, could store its genetic information and transcribe it whenRead MoreEssay on Issues of Tempo and Mode in Evolution625 Words   |  3 Pagesa biblical stand point rather than how Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism are looked at from the opposite view. The theory of Uniformitarianism states that everything happens gradually and what we see now in the present time, took many years to become this way. It also has a natural law that says that what was happening before is happening now and will happen then. So if you are anywhere in the universe events function on a cycle forever. The mastermind behind this theory is James Hutton, a ScottishRead MoreThe Importance of Geographic Isolation Essay1148 Words   |  5 Pagesdriving force of speciation and founded the theory of allopatric speciation. For decades Mayrs idea has been the traditional method thought to result in the highest amount of speciation, but recent support has shifted from allopatry and Darwins gradualism to rapid and sporadic periods of speciation with periods of relative equilibrium regardless of geographic barriers. Darwin, the father of evolution was amazingly correct or close to the truth on most of his theories regardless of modern day