Abstract
The idea that all living things on Earth evolved from simpler forms through natural selection was put forward by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace in 1859. It was a shocking idea at the time since it provided a possible explanation for the seemingly purposeful features of organisms and their component parts. That living things have all the appearance of having been designed had been an important part of the argument for the existence of God. Although still shocking to some people, evolution through natural selection has become the central idea of modern biology.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Cairns-Smith, A.G. (1999). The light of evolution. In: Secrets of the Mind. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1510-3_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1510-3_5
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7173-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-1510-3
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