Evolution, as a viable contemporary scientific theory, is an incredibly powerful and useful tool for helping every individual make appropriate personal health decisions. Natural selection, a key component of evolutionary theory, helps us to understand why it is so important to take an antibiotic for the full duration of the prescription despite the fact that we feel better days before we use up the pills. Natural selection offers individuals engaged in modern agricultural practices a powerful explanatory and predictive tool for understanding why a rotation of herbicides and pesticides is critical to maintain high yields.
Evolution is also a critical guide to the conduct of research important to public health.
Common ancestry, another key component of evolutionary theory helps researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to attack medical problems faster and more reliably than if the CDC was to start from scratch every time a new organism was discovered. Yet, despite the vast applied success of this theoretical tool, public school teachers often find themselves under pressure to avoid evolution as an instructional topic. Teachers should be nonjudgmental about the beliefs of students. In others words, it is important for students, parents, teachers, and individual State Board of Education members to realize that they can have both tools in their tool belt. What ones needs to learn to recognize, nonetheless, is where and when it is most appropriate to make use of each tool.