Alternatives to evolution by natural selection | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2019-05-10

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternatives_to_evolution_by_natural_selection


00:03:25 1 Unchanging forms
00:07:12 2 Alternative explanations of change
00:10:08 2.1 Vitalism
00:11:41 2.2 Theistic evolution
00:13:18 2.3 Orthogenesis
00:15:25 2.4 Lamarckism
00:18:13 2.5 Catastrophism
00:20:12 2.6 Structuralism
00:22:50 2.7 Saltationism, mutationism
00:26:07 2.8 Genetic drift
00:27:51 3 Combined theories
00:30:09 4 Rebirth of natural selection, with continuing alternatives
00:32:12 5 See also



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SUMMARY
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Alternatives to evolution by natural selection, also described as non-Darwinian mechanisms of evolution, have been proposed by scholars investigating biology since classical times to explain signs of evolution and the relatedness of different groups of living things. 
The alternatives in question do not deny that evolutionary changes over time are the origin of the diversity of life, nor deny that the organisms alive today share a common ancestor from the distant past (or ancestors, in some proposals); rather, they propose alternative mechanisms of evolutionary change over time, arguing against mutations acted on by natural selection as the most important driver of evolutionary change. (In most cases, they do not deny that mutations or natural selection occur, or that they play a role in evolutionary change, but instead deny that they are fully sufficient primary causes for the evidence of evolutionary change that is observed in the natural world.)
This distinguishes them from certain other kinds of arguments that deny that large scale evolution of any sort has taken place, as in some forms of creationism, which do not propose alternative mechanisms of evolutionary change but instead deny that evolutionary change has taken place at all. Not all forms of creationism deny that evolutionary change takes places; notably, proponents of theistic evolution, such as the biologist Asa Gray, assert that evolutionary change does occur and is responsible for the history of life on Earth, with the proviso that this process has been influenced by a god or gods in some meaningful sense.
Where the fact of evolutionary change was accepted but the mechanism proposed by Charles Darwin, natural selection, was denied, explanations of evolution such as Lamarckism, catastrophism, orthogenesis, vitalism, structuralism and mutationism (called saltationism before 1900) were entertained. Different factors motivated people to propose non-Darwinian mechanisms of evolution. Natural selection, with its emphasis on death and competition, did not appeal to some naturalists because they felt it immoral, leaving little room for teleology or the concept of progress in the development of life. Some who came to accept evolution, but disliked natural selection, raised religious objections. Others felt that evolution was an inherently progressive process that natural selection alone was insufficient to explain. Still others felt that nature, including the development of life, followed orderly patterns that natural selection could not explain.
By the start of the 20th century, evolution was generally accepted by biologists but natural selection was in eclipse. Many alternative theories were proposed, but biologists were quick to discount theories such as orthogenesis, vitalism and Lamarckism which offered no mechanism for evolution. Mutationism did propose a mechanism, but it was not generally accepted. The modern synthesis a generation later claimed to sweep away all the alternatives to Darwinian evolution, though some have been revived as molecular mechanisms for them have been discovered.