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    Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know
    Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know
    Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know

    By Craig Stanford

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    About this ebook

    In the early 21st century, we shouldn’t need to debate the fact that humans evolved from ancient apes. But there are many millions of Americans who still choose to live in denial of evolution. Our politicians shy away from publically embracing the fact of evolution, and there is a shameful lack of evolution in science classrooms. Evolution by natural selection explains the development of life on Earth and the origin of modern humans, and it’s time we say that loudly and clearly to a new generation of students. Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know is aimed at high school students, to answer questions they may have about how evolution works. The book grew out of discussions with the author’s teenage son, and tries to enlighten students at a time when they are open to ideas that their parents may not have encouraged them to learn or embrace. My hope is that Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know will answer your questions and give you the facts you need to convince those who are living in denial of the reality of evolution.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCraig Stanford
    Release dateOct 10, 2014
    Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know
    Author

    Craig Stanford

    Craig Stanford is a renowned expert on animal behavior and human origins. He is Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at the University of Southern California and Director of the USC Jane Goodall Research Center. He holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and is best known for his research and his books on chimpanzee hunting and meat-eating in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, done in collaboration with Jane Goodall. In addition, he spent a decade studying the relationship between chimpanzees and mountain gorillas in the Impenetrable Forest of Uganda.Craig has conducted field research on primates and other animals for more than 20 years in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He is the author of 17 scientific and popular books and more than 130 scholarly articles on animal behavior and human evolution. His most recent nonfiction book, Planet Without Apes, was published by Harvard University Press in 2012, and describes the critical situation facing the apes in the 21st century. He is a frequent guest on radio and television interviews and is an acclaimed teacher and past winner of the USC Associate Teaching Award, the highest award given by USC for teaching excellence. He can be reached at stanford@usc.edu

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      Book preview

      Evolution - Craig Stanford

      Evolution:

      What Every Teenager Should Know

      Craig Stanford

      Copyright 2014 Craig Stanford

      Smashwords Edition

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Ebook formatting by Maureen Cutajar

      www.gopublished.com

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1 – Is Evolution a Fact or a Theory?

      Chapter 2 – How does evolution work? What evidence convinced Darwin that evolution is real?

      Chapter 3 – What’s the harm in teaching both evolution and creation beliefs together in my science class? Can I accept that evolution is real but still believe in God?

      Chapter 4 – Is there always progress in evolution?

      Chapter 5 – How does one species evolve into another? What exactly is a species?

      Chapter 6 – If we evolved from monkeys and apes, why do apes still exist? Will apes evolve into more human-like species someday?

      Chapter 7 – Why is the fossil record so incomplete and full of gaps, and where is the missing link?

      Chapter 8 – Why do some species live many millions of years, and others go extinct?

      Chapter 9 – Are we still evolving?

      Chapter 10 – The evolution of teenagers.

      About the Author

      Preface

      This book is about science and America’s youth. Unlike other subjects that Americans students are expected to understand and accept – from American history to algebra – the subject of evolution still creates such controversy that millions of parents avoid exposing their children to it. If exposed, many parents will insist, But it’s just a theory. There are millions of religious families who regard evolution with skepticism, or even consider it un-American, and who would prefer that their children not learn that life on Earth evolved by natural selection. This, in the most scientifically and technologically advanced society the world has ever known, is very sad and disturbing. In Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know, I address an embarrassing problem in our society.

      The idea for this book was conceived by my son Adam as we strolled down a beach together one summer. Adam, turning fifteen years old at the time, had been raised in a household where science was discussed daily. As we walked along the wet sand, he told me he thought someone ought to write a book about evolution, in order to answer the questions that his friends at school often challenged him with. Some of his classmates were skeptical based on the religious traditions they were raised with. Others were just plain curious. He thought the book should focus on his age group: a time of intense curiosity and a point in life at which teens starts to decide for themselves what is real and true and what is not. The teens of today will be the next generation of either evolution promoters or deniers.

      Little did Adam know that the spark he created would lead to a book in which he would play a role. I thought the idea was brilliant and the book badly needed. There are a few books already on the market that are intended to teach evolution to a younger generation with the use of illustrations, and there are also adult books pitched at the reading public. But in-between, there’s a nation of eager-to-learn teens who question the traditions they were raised with. The life sciences curriculum in the typical American high school today does not provide a healthy evolutionary perspective. Yes, high school biology textbooks do contain a chapter or two on evolution. These summarize evolution in about forty pages of a six hundred page book. The word evolution very rarely appears in any other chapter. This is odd given that evolution explains the DNA molecule, the structure and function of cells, reproductive biology, digestion and the whole range of topics covered by the typical biology text book. Evolution isn’t a stand-alone subject that can be neatly contained in a chapter. It’s the thread that unified modern biology. The American educational system typically prefers to keep evolutionary science in a neat box. This makes it easily ignored by teachers with an anti-evolution bias. Evolution cannot be taught as a stand-alone science. As a famed biologist once wrote, Nothing in the life sciences makes sense except in the light of evolution.

      In the early 21st century, we shouldn’t need to debate the fact that humans evolved from ancient apes. This book is necessary because there are many millions of Americans who still choose to live in denial of evolution. Every Fall, when I teach a large undergraduate lecture course at the University of Southern California on human origins, I ask the students on the first day of class, How many of you believe in evolution? More than ninety-five per cent raise their hands. This is cosmopolitan Los Angeles; most of the students come from educated families and privileged backgrounds. The response would be quite different if I took the poll in the rural Midwest or the deep south. Opinion polls show many millions of Americans who believe that humans and dinosaurs once shared the Earth, and who want religious beliefs taught in public school science classrooms. But my question to the students is a trick question. Evolution is not belief; it’s a reality. If you want to live in denial of evolution, you’re in the same category as people who choose to deny the reality of the Holocaust or the moon landings. Evolution is an historical science, a tool for reconstructing the ancient past, including our own human past. Denying it makes about as much sense as saying that George Washington was just a mythical figure.

      American political leaders unfortunately reinforce a denial of evolution, most likely in order not to alienate large segments of their supporters. Several of the 2012 Republican candidates for president vehemently denied the certainty of evolution, and along with other related rejections of science, such as global climate change. Even President Obama stated that the Earth was created in six days, although he acknowledged that this might be a metaphor used in the bible to refer to six much longer units of time. We know that certain segments of America aren’t going to change their minds about evolution based on one book. But younger people are far more likely to explore and embrace ideas, even ones they were raised to reject. If some younger Americans are persuaded to think for themselves about science and reality with the help of this book, I will feel that our effort was very worthwhile.

      Evolution: What Every Teenager Should Know is organized as a series of commonly asked questions about evolution. These are actual questions that Adam was asked by his classmates, and I kept notes about them as I began to plan the book. Each question is a prompt for a concise, fact-filled explanation of how evolution works. I don’t shy away from the potential conflicts between evolutionary science and religion, and I tackle some of the thorniest questions that doubters ask. I encourage you to use this book as a conversation starter with your parents, your

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