Excerpt from introduction to 4 ("Evolution") manual Fundamentals of Psychobiology , by various authors, edited by Sanz y Torres and published in 2009:
In the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace independently discovered the mechanism by which evolution occurs, natural selection. In 1859 Darwin published his work The Origin of Species, which laid the foundations for the current theory of evolution and thus, the scientific framework in which fall since all discoveries that expand and corroborate Darwin's explanation of why diversity and evolution of all living beings.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton revolutionized the way people think and see the world from the people of his time to make it clear that neither the Earth was the center of the universe, or that this was a static place and made to our measure. It was not until nearly two centuries to Charles Darwin deal the final blow to human vanity and his anthropocentric view of the world. The man, who seemed to stay out of both previous cosmological cataclysm, was also deposed to be proposed as a link in the evolutionary chain and worse for some was a descendant of the monkey! All this, of course, called into question to view human nature and deep convictions, so far, solid, eminently religious society, leading a host of criticisms and insults, some of which still survive.
But the transcendent idea of \u200b\u200blife and the special source that many people attribute to man, makes opponents of the theory of evolution continue wielding today, inconsistent, non-scientific arguments, since no empirical fact has refute or falsify the theory of evolution and support the development of an alternative scientific theory. One of the arguments against is that theory is not fully demonstrated. However, this argument makes no sense, because that is something that happens, not only the theory of evolution, but all scientific theories, because all are more or less to lack of corroboration in all space and time, but not lose its predictive value, explaining and applying the known universe. Another type of criticism are based on mere opinion that , as the case of creationism or its new version reprinted under the title of Intelligent Design , not supported by empirical facts but religious beliefs. For many people faith gives hope and transcendence human life, but those feelings and beliefs belong to the private and subjective. The views are used to the ideological debate but not for the scientist, in which only the objective facts, verifiable by observation and experimentation are what count.
Another source of criticism or misinterpretation of the theory of evolution is based on the simple ignorance of the meaning given in science to the terms evolution and theory. Thus, the term evolution, with extensive meanings (change, transformation, progress, growth, guidance, progress, direction or trend, etc.) leads to some people to give evolution a finalist misinterpretation. However, in the context of the theory of evolution, evolution is the term used to describe the change in diversity and adaptation of populations of organisms or the transformation of one species into another and never to reveal an idea of \u200b\u200bprogress , guidance, direction or purpose. Natural selection is pure opportunism.
The term theory is also misunderstood in this context that is given its ordinary meaning, ie the statements designating empirically unsubstantiated speculation (something similar to what science is known as a hypothesis). However, in the scientific context, a theory is a universal explanatory statement, supported by a set of scientific laws that serve to relate certain order of phenomena. In this context, the theory of evolution is a set of mathematical laws and functional which will serve to explain the diversity of living things and their causes. Naturally, like any scientific theory is subject to constant criticism and experimental and observational testing of their laws. As noted already in 1994 the biologist Francismo Ayala: "the evolutionary origin of organisms is now an established scientific conclusion with any degree of certainty comparable to other concepts certain scientists, such as the roundness of the earth, the rotation of the planets around the sun or the molecular composition of matter. This degree of certainty beyond reasonable doubt, is what biologists say when they say that evolution is a fact. The evolutionary origin of organisms is an accepted fact by biologists and informed everyone about it. "
Excerpt from the book 
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