Evolution, literally the act of unrolling or unfolding, is a term used in science and philosophy to indicate the development of an organism or organic entity towards greater differentiation of organs and functions, and, therefore, to a more complex and higher state of being. Thus, in astronomy, the nebular hypothesis, which regards the planetary bodies as evolved from nebular or gaseous matter, is an example of evolution. In geology, also, the old view which considered the animal and vegetable life of each geological period as a new and separate organic creation, has given place to the evolutionary theory of a process of development from earlier types to those of the later periods. But the evolution of the more complex from the more simple organisms does not necessarily, probably never does, exhibit a linear series of advances; thus of the protoplasm which represents the first stage of an animal's existence, part is set aside for one tissue, part for another; in the same way, on the theory of the origin of certain animal or vegetable forms from a common stock, some members of a group have manifested such modifications as render them permanently unlike their kindred of whom some may retain for a longer or shorter time their original characters, while others become specialized in other directions.
Evolution is a law whose operation is traceable throughout every department of nature. It may be equally well illustrated from the history of philosophy or the arts, or from the historical development of society. But it is in connection with the evolutionary theory of the origin of species that the principle of evolution has been most discussed, affirming, as it does, that all forms of life both in the animal and vegetable kingdom have been developed by continuous differentiation of organs and modifications of parts from one low form of life consisting of a minute cell. The steps by which this process has been accomplished and the causes which have been mainly at work in it form a department of research to which many notable scientists - Lamarck, St Hilaire, Meckel, Haeckel, Spencer, Darwin, Wallace, and others have contributed.
One of the greatest contributions to the theory of evolution in nature was the work of Charles Darwin (published in his book On the Origin of Species), in which he produced some of the strongest evidence in favour of evolution as an endless progression evolving higher species, genera, families, orders, classes, the infinitely varied forms being each adapted to the circumstances by which it is surrounded. A theory which over 100 years later and despite irrefutable evidence is condemned by Christian fundamentalists as blasphemy, arguing instead that the notion of evolution is at odds with the biblical theory of creation (creationism), the fundamentalists taking offence at the concept of man as a higher form of ape which has developed over millennia, rather than being created as a perfect form by a supernatural deity. Research Evolution
Abbreviations
SciTech
Research Evolution