Home Β» Life Β» Biodiversity, adaptation and evolution Β» Theory of evolution: misunderstandings and resistance. On the one hand, some of its concepts, such as the random nature of genetic variations, although abundantly proven by experimentation, are counter-intuitive and therefore difficult to assimilate mentally. On the other hand, its materialism offends our minds shaped by centuries of religious thought and anthropocentrism to the point of provoking passionate rejection.
Even among scientific authors or philosophers who claim to be evolutionists, the strength of the qualifiers they use to describe Darwinism clearly expresses the extent of these resistances. The basic mechanisms of biological evolution, discovered by Darwin see focus on Darwin , have been enriched by more than a century of research to form the modern theory of evolution.
However, this continues to pose serious problems of understanding, and even to create reluctance that may even go so far as to reject the very idea of evolution.
These attitudes are found even among scientists, including biologists. Yet in everyday life, there is constant reference to the evolutionary process, especially when it comes to the resistance of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics, insects to insecticides , or plants to herbicides.
But it must be assumed that the mechanisms of this process remain obscure for many people, as confirmed by sociological surveys. After his five-year trip around the world, which led him to reflect on the origin of the species, Charles Darwin became very interested in the practices of breeders. But, at the very beginning, Darwin did not see what, in nature, could play a role equivalent to the selection practiced by the breeder.
