Getting Rid of "Darwinism" in New Scientist

 
Last week, Olivia Judson published a controversial article on the New York Time website. She made the case for getting rid of terms like "Darwinism" and "Darwinian" to describe modern evolutionary biology [Let’s Get Rid of Darwinism]. I'm in complete agreement as I've stated on many occasions [see Why I'm Not a Darwinist]. The main point, as far as I'm concerned, is that modern evolutionary biology has gone way beyond Darwin's original ideas and it's no longer appropriate to describe the modern ideas as "Darwinian." In fact, it can be downright incorrect if you're a pluralist, like me.

Let's see how this might work in practice. The latest issue of New Scientist uses the term "Darwinian evolution" once in the lead editorial [Creationists launch cynical attack on school science]. Here's what it says ...

WHEN science education in the US has come under attack from religious critics, it has proved useful in the past to ask the question, what is science? This approach has been key to keeping public-school science lessons free from non-scientific alternatives to Darwinian evolution, such as creationism and intelligent design (ID) - the notion that life is so complex it could not have arisen without an intelligent agency, aka God.

Nothing is gained here by referring to biological evolution as "Darwinian evolution." As a matter of fact, in this context the term is bound to cause confusion. There are many scientists who think there really are legitimate alternatives to "Darwinian" evolution (e.g. random genetic drift) but the editorial implies that all such alternatives are simply attempts to sneak God into the equation.

Getting rid of "Darwinian" would be a good thing in this case since it is much more accurate to depict the conflict as a challenge to "biological evolution" and not just "Darwinian" evolution.

The lead article in the July 12-18th issue is New legal threat to teaching evolution in the US. The term "Darwininan evolution" is used a couple of times, as in ...

The new legislation is the latest manoeuvre in a long-running war to challenge the validity of Darwinian evolution as an accepted scientific fact in American classrooms.

Again, nothing is gained—and something is lost—by referring to biological evolution as "Darwinian evolution." It would be better to drop the term "Darwinian."

But there's a more serious problem with the article. It is accompanied by a photograph of a classroom with some writing on the blackboard. You can see the photo on the New Scientist website but you can't read what's written. Here's what it says on the blackboard ...

Darwin's Theory says:
Anyone who is familiar with the anatomy of man and the apes must admit that no hypothesis other than that of close kinship affords a reasonable ... explanation of the extraordinarily exact identity of structure in most parts of the bodies man and gorilla.

This is not Darwin's Theory. One of Darwin's main contributions was to show that evolution is the best explanation of life as we know it. We now think of this as the fact of evolution—demonstrated to such an extent that it would be perverse to entertain any other explanation. It's the fact of evolution that's described on the blackboard and this is not a theory, and it's certainly not Darwin's Theory.

The mechanisms of evolution are a different story. Darwin proposed that natural selection was an important mechanism of evolution. This is part of evolutionary theory and it can be referred to as Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. There are other mechanisms (e.g. random genetic drift) that Darwin did not imagine because his understanding of genetics was incomplete. Those mechanisms are non-Darwinian mechanisms.

The blackboard photo in New Scientists is contributing to the general confusion among the public and thus, it is hurting the cause rather than helping it. This is another case were avoiding the terms "Darwin's Theory" and "Darwinian" would be a good idea.

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