Species evolve exactly as if they were adapting as best they could to a changing world, and not at all as if they were moving toward a set goal.
Interpretation
Species adapt to their environment without a predetermined purpose or goal.
The quote by George Gaylord Simpson emphasizes that evolution is a process driven by the necessity of adaptation to changing environments rather than a directed phenomenon towards a specific endpoint. It suggests that species develop traits and characteristics out of survival instincts, responding to the conditions around them rather than striving for an ideal state or form.
In practice
In a science class discussion about evolution, one might use this quote to illustrate the principle of adaptation.
If a sect does officially insist that its structure of belief demands that evolution be false, then no compromise is possible. An honest and competent biology teacher can only conclude that the sect's beliefs are wrong and that its religion is a false one.
Now we do have many examples of transitional sequences.
He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material.
Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned. He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material.
Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind
To put it crudely but graphically, the monkey who did not have a realistic perception of the tree branch he jumped for was soon a dead monkey-and therefore did not become one of our ancestors.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
No longer is science asked to understand the world, or to improve any part of it. It is asked instead to immediately justify everything that happens... spectacular domination has cut down the vast tree of scientific knowledge in order to make itself a truncheon.
I would designate as science fiction in the best sense: they are visions and anticipations by which we seek to attain a true knowledge, but, in fact, they are only imaginations whereby we seek to draw near to the reality.
We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universes, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act.
I think the next century will be the century of complexity.
This is a basic problem, to feed 6.6 billion people. Without fertilizer, forget it. The game is over.
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