User:TxMCJ

Who I am

Native Texan, Evolutionary Biologist, and WFTDA athlete.

Other Things I Do And Think About

Phylogenetics, cafe racers, the Sea of Cortez, rock 'n' roll, tetrodotoxin, circuit bending, and the Iditarod.

Why I edit Evolution

• Because I can

• Because it still gives me chills to read and sense Darwin's profound realizations while writing the first edition of the The Origin

• Because Science is a Method, not a POV

• Because Evolution is still not taught widely enough in schools

• Because popular culture is riddled with inaccurate misconceptions about how Evolution works and what it implies

• Because "There is grandeur in this view of life"

• Because integrity and education are the best weapons against agendas and ignorance

• Because agendas and ignorance abound

• Because if the history of Life over Deep Time isn't the most interesting thing you can think of, I intend to change that

Five Things that Evolutionary Biology is

• The study of shared (common) ancestry of all living things

• The study of organismal change over time

• The study of the genetic, reproductive, and ecological mechanisms that drive this change

• The study of how a phylogenetic and evolutionary perspective informs all other fields of Biology

• A true science, where falsifiable hypotheses are routinely tested

Five Things that Evolutionary Biology is not

• An "alternative belief system" that can be accepted or rejected based on personal opinion

• A pending hypothesis awaiting proof or disproof

• Atheism

• A field whose conclusions directly address issues of spirituality, first origins, ethics, or the meaning of life

• A field where the core principles are doubted or debated among scientists

"Why Any God, if S/he or It Exists, Would Want You To Understand That Evolution is True "

• Coming soon, stay tuned... ;-)