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The cartoon reflects how many people felt about Darwin and his theory during his own time. Drawn in 1871, it depicts Darwin himself as an ape. Many people found it hard to accept the idea that humans had evolved from an ape-like ancestor, and they saw evolution as a challenge to their religious beliefs. An adaptation is a trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce in a given environment.ĭespite all the evidence Darwin presented, his theory was not well-received at first. As living things evolve, they generally become better suited for their environment. Evolution explains how living things are changing today and how modern living things have descended from ancient life forms that no longer exist on Earth. Over many generations, this can lead to major changes in the characteristics of the species. In natural selection, some members of a species, being better adapted or suited to their environment, produce more offspring than others, so they pass "advantageous traits" to their offspring. As described by Darwin, evolution occurs by a process called natural selection. He also presented a great deal of evidence that evolution occurs.Įvolution is a change in the characteristics of living things over time. In the book, Darwin stated the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin published a book on evolution in 1859 titled On the Origin of Species. However, evolution is most often associated with Charles Darwin. In fact, it goes all the way back to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. The idea of evolution has been around for centuries. Faced with the disappointing mess that is modern politics, how likely is it REALLY that reptilian aliens have infiltrated our government? The simpler explanation is a combination of corruption, incompetence and structural inefficiency.\) Occam’s razor is also often used to debunk conspiracy theories. But atheists might counter that the existence of a divine being who created the world in just seven days is much less simple (and relies on more assumptions) than the big bang theory - a great example of how simplicity is in the eye of the beholder. “Isn’t the simplest explanation of how the Earth was created that God created it?” they say. Many Creationists use Occam’s razor to argue the existence of God. “You have a headache?”, “Oh no… you might have the Black Death!” Sure, it’s true that one of the symptoms of the Black Death is a headache but, using Occam’s razor, it’s obviously much more likely that you’re dehydrated or suffering from a common cold. Occam’s razor tells us that we shouldn’t get sucked into a whirlpool of paranoia after scrolling through WebMD. But there are plenty of examples in our everyday lives too. This principle is popular among skeptics, a group of people inclined to keep an open mind and believe only what we can sense or what can be proven scientifically. Also, ‘simplicity’ is often subject to heavy debate, so you and I might come to different conclusions when faced with a decision between the same 2 hypotheses. It doesn’t prove or disprove, it simply leads you down the path that’s most likely to be correct. Remember, however, that Occam’s razor is a heuristic, a rule of thumb, to suggest which hypothesis is most likely to be true. Underdetermination says that for any theory in science there will always be at least one other rival theory that could conceivably be correct, so the scientific method uses Occam’s razor in order to circumvent this issue and choose a working hypothesis. Some argue that the scientific method was built upon the principles of Occam’s razor. A statement that includes many ‘ifs’ should trigger mental alarm bells: you should consider Occam’s razor and investigate it further. Namesake William of Occam said the best explanation of any phenomenon is the one that makes the fewest assumptions. Essentially, when faced with competing explanations for the same phenomenon, the simplest is likely the correct one. If Occam’s razor brings to mind images of stubbled gentlemen and shaving cream, you’re not actually that far off! Occam’s razor (also known as the ‘law of parsimony’) is a philosophical tool for ‘shaving off’ unlikely explanations. What is Occam’s razor? Definition and explanation