Although my MS is in air chemistry and my PhD is in water chemistry, my BS is
in biology. For the record, evolution is not A theory, it is THE theory.
The science of biology makes no sense without evolution. This applies to
bio-molecular pathways, comparative physiology and anatomy, behavior,
taxonomy, ecology, and any other branch one can name. Without evolution,
biology is a static collection isolated facts.
Has anyone every seen wild packs of Chihuahuas or Great Danes running about? Or indeed, even any evidence that either of these breeds even existed more than 2,000 years ago?. Of course not. These wildly different breeds of dogs, indeed all dogs, are the result of many years of selective breeding of wolves (dogs and wolves can inter-breed incidentally). Only dogs (wolves) with certain features, both behavioral and physical, were allowed to breed. Selective breeding is exactly how biological evolution works, except there are no people involved. Only organisms with certain characteristics survive and reproduce while those that lack them, don?t. So there is nothing random about evolution.
Languages likewise evolve. Once there was a language called Latin with an
extensive written record (linguistic fossils if your like). It evolved into
a large number of daughter languages although Latin itself is dead. There is
a long written record documenting this evolution. One can see how these
languages share certain features (vocabulary and grammar) among themselves
and their parent language but how differences increased over time.
It is hypothesized that Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit all evolved from some more
ancient common language (proto-Indo-European). There is no *fossil record*
of this evolution. However, just as Latin?s daughter languages show a
pattern consistent with *evolution*, so do Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. These
languages share some vocabulary and have similar syntax but show differences
as well, differences that increase over time and distance, just as Portuguese
and Romanian did. So while the hypothesized language of proto-Indo-European
can never proven to the same degree as Latin is proven to exist, there is
strong evidence. The same is true of proto-Semitic or proto-Hebrew.
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