One person’s weed is another person’s miracle.
Evolution
Purple loosestrife • Photo by Garten Akademie (CC BY 3.0)
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
What’s progress got to do with it?
We’ve all seen the familiar image of a fish waddling onto the shore, preceded by a quadruped rising onto its hind legs, a knuckle-dragging simian, thick-browed Neanderthal, and — leading the parade of progress — bright-eyed Homo sapiens striding erect.
An example of decentralized self-organization in nature • Photo by Donald Macauley (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Seeking order in the natural order
It is a popular misconception that evolution is “just a theory.”
Statue honoring Charles Darwin at the Natural History Museum, London • Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash
Imperfect, yes, but the best we have
“In a child’s power to master the multiplication tables there is more sanctity than in all your shouted amens and holy holies and hosannas.”
A Galápagos finch • Photo by Paul Krawczuk (CC BY 2.0)
A progressive’s progress down the road of evolution
There are people who prefer things to remain the same; there are people who prefer change. We call them respectively conservatives and liberals, Tories and Whigs, reactionaries and progressives.
Photo by Daniil Kuželev on Unsplash
The incredible is not the impossible
The human eye is dear to Creationists.
Staphylococcus bacteria • Image by Scientific Animations (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Quibbling about nature’s design
“In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone…” So begins William’s Paley’s “Natural Theology,” first published in Britain in 1802.
One method of getting around • Photo by Steve (CC BY 2.0)
The nature of the wheel is just not in our nature
Inchworms inch. Whirligigs whirl. Sidewinders wind. Grasshoppers hop. It’s called getting around, and the animal kingdom has devised a thousand ways to do it.
John Tenniel's classic illustration of Alice and the Dodo, along with a modern reconstruction • Photo by BazzaDaRambler (CC BY 2.0)
Survival of the ugliest
The dodo became extinct 175 years before Lewis Carroll introduced his favorite bird to his favorite little girl in “Alice in Wonderland.”
Photo by Deva Darshan on Unsplash
The Energizer bunnies of evolution
Anyone who has watched a dragonfly scout a summer pond has seen one of the wonders of evolution.