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Much
of the confusion surrounding evolution arises because advocates claim that the
‘whole’ evolutionary account is so simple or self-evident that one must be
“ignorant, stupid or insane” to not accept it. While
Darwin’s basic insight of adaptation by descent with modification is indeed
beautifully simple, a complete account of biological history in evolutionary
terms will need to synthesize the data and insights from all the
sub-disciplines into a coherent whole. Finding a representative picture for
this complex history is not easy. Importantly, even the operation of the basic
mechanism of natural selection can be conceptualised in significantly different
ways. The three main options are as follows.
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| Feedback | Contributed by: Adrian Wyard
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