10 Controversial Theories About The Universe's Toughest Questions
10. Evolution: You're A Fish
The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection proposed independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace was controversial at the time to say the least.
While it may be presumed that this is no longer the case, it is a fact that nearly 50% of Americans polled in a recent survey do not accept evolution. When one considers the creationist doctrines believed among many of the worlds religious groups it can be seen that evolution is in some ways just as controversial today as it ever was. Indeed many classrooms across America and Muslim countries, and on occasion even in the UK, do not teach evolution except as a means to pass exams rather than teach intelligent design or creationism.
Let's get one thing absolutely clear before we move on: Evolution is NOT a theory. Evolution is a fact, it REALLY happened, and we can prove it.
That Darwin and Wallace discovered natural selection as its process was a mark of their genius and observational skills. Darwin and Wallace's theory was brilliant, simple, elegant, and powerful. By many random mutations occurring over time with only the most advantageous adaptations being kept and the energy wasting unnecessary ones discarded, a species would change and adapt over time to appear perfectly suited to its environment. The power of the theory was to explain not only how a bird's beak could grow longer, shorter or more pointed over time but also how the first creatures managed to crawl out of shallow pools and onto the land.
The theory has often been paraphrased as "survival of the fittest" but this is an inaccurate and misleading term. It implies that the strongest species wins but by that logic the dinosaurs should still be here. More accuratly "fittest" here means "most fitting".
Despite the fact that some struggle with the idea that humans evolved from a common ancestor with the apes, the answer to "Who am I?" seems to be, "You're a fish". In fact, almost all animal life on Earth is, in some way or another, a repurposed fish. The bones we use to hear and speak were once part of a gill structure, your gonads begin up in your chest just below the heart just like a fish (they later move down to a colder place) and the human face can be viewed coming together in two halves during early development from a folded inside out fish face.
So the next time you hear someone ask "If we came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" you can just answer well, there are still fish so why not?