Michael Ruse, philosopher of science, recounts the history of Darwinism by explaining the theories of evolution and natural selection.
Ruse questions whether these theories are as valid today, 200 years after Darwin's birthday.
Bio
Michael Ruse
Michael Ruse is a philosopher of science, working on the philosophy of biology, and is well known for his work on the argument between creationism and evolutionary biology.
He was born in England, took his undergraduate degree at the University of Bristol (1962), his master's degree at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario (1964), and Ph.D. at the University of Bristol (1970). Ruse taught at the University of Guelph Canada for 35 years.
Since his retirement from Guelph, he has taught at Florida State University and is, since 2000, the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy. In 1986, he was elected as a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Bergen, Norway (1990), the McMaster University, Ontario, Canada (2003) and most recently the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada (2007).
(born Feb. 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng.—died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent) British naturalist. The grandson of Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and biology at Cambridge. He was recommended as a naturalist on HMS Beagle, which was bound on a long scientific survey expedition to South America and the South Seas (1831–36). His zoological and geological discoveries on the voyage resulted in numerous important publications and formed the basis of his theories of evolution. Seeing competition between individuals of a single species, he recognized that within a local population the individual bird, for example, with the sharper beak might have a better chance to survive and reproduce and that if such traits were passed on to new generations, they would be predominant in future populations. He saw this natural selection as the mechanism by which advantageous variations were passed on to later generations and less advantageous traits gradually disappeared. He worked on his theory for more than 20 years before publishing it in his famous On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). The book was immediately in great demand, and Darwin's intensely controversial theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles; most opposition came from religious leaders. Though Darwin's ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man… (1871). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. See alsoDarwinism.
"By evolutionary definition, she must be better, more adapted and smarter than any forefather."
Wrong! Evolution doesn't invoke concepts like "better" or "superior" and doesn't at all apply to the immediate past but the distant past. Hillary is certainly different than humans 100,000 years ago, but to answer whether or not she is "better" begs the question, "better for/at what?"
As Ruse is supposed to be a philosopher, It is with jaw dropping awe that he does NOT realize that the debate concerns Metaphysics and does not have cultural/social underpinnings.
When Hillary walks out in a suit, Crationists aren't worried about crossdressing and role reversal. They're worried that she thinks she is the opitome of evolutionary humanity, that she's the latest and therefore the greatest version of humankind. By evolutionary definition, she must be better, more adapted and smarter than any forefather. Dismiss the unintelligent, unadaptive past! The consumerist culture just "naturally" has to agree.
The metaphysical baggage that accompanies the concept of "evolution" is staggering.
member. 
