Teaching Evolutionary Biology is hard. It is not easy, like teaching astrophysics would be. Nobody knows anything about astrophysics, so all the instructor has to do is to find the empty space in the student’s brain and put some astrophysics in there.

The problem with Evolutionary Biology is that everybody already knows lots of stuff about it. Everybody already knows all about animal behavior because they have a cat. Everybody already knows all about human behavior because they are a human. Everybody already knows all about mating systems because they have a mate. And so on.

On top of this, we have the venerable science press. Evolutionary biology, especially the part about human evolution, is very cool. Therefore, new findings by evolutionary biologists always get press. Even old findings get press on a slow news day. But reporters are not really reporting the science. They are writing for an audience; an audience that they have created over time with their particular way of reporting.

A very clear example of this is the concept of a Missing Link. There are no missing links in science. Evolutionary biologists reject the concept of a missing link. We don’t use that word. We think it is incorrect and misleading. Yet, it is as difficult to find a news story about a fossil that does NOT use the phrase “Missing Link” as it is to swing a dead cat and not get in trouble with the SPCA. (Not that I’ve actually tried that…)

By the way, reporters know all about this missing link problem. Or at least, science reporters know about it. They always apologize just before they write the story about the missing link.

The things that people know already often need to be removed from the brain prior to teaching new stuff. This may seem a little offensive to some, but really, it is easier to just admit it. I’m not saying that everything I might tell you about evolutionary biology is necessarily true and correct, but in most cases it will be more on the mark than the stuff we learn in Kindergarten or the stuff we learn by simply absorbing the information in which we are steeped, daily.

Anyway, personal experience and the nature of the media conspire to prepare students to fully misunderstand even the most basic concepts in evolutionary biology.

These things … the things taking up valuable brain space but that deserve no place in your grey matter … I call The Falsehoods. I have a long list of them, which apply mainly to college Freshman. My wife Amanda, a High School Biology teacher, has a list too, that applies to high school students. (How romantic was that, when we each learned that the other had a Falsehood list!!! I’ll never forget that day… Oh, but I digress..)

My list is long, but the key elements can be summarized quickly, as follows:

Falsehoods about Evolution:
1. Evolution is goal directed and progressive
2. Species can be organized on a scale of primitive or simple to advanced and complex
3. Natural selection is all about “survival of the fittest”
4. Things that are natural are generally good, while things that are unnatural are generally bad
5. Evolution is “only a theory”

Falsehoods about how nature works:
1. Nature maintains a balance
2. Individuals often act for the survival of their species

Falsehoods specifically about human evolution:
1. Humans evolved form apes
2. Evolution has stopped for humans
3. (To this I’ll add this sub-falsehood: Serious scientists often entertain the question: “Has evolution stopped for humans?”)

Falsehoods about behavior:
1. Genes code for behaviors
2. The earlier in the life cycle, the more genetically controlled the individual (the phenotype)
3. Culture overrides or compensates for biology
4. Culture is quick and adaptive, but biology is ponderous
5. An adopted baby is not the biological offspring of her mother

What I call “Us vs. The Other” falsehoods:
1. Primitive cultures are in balance with nature, while complex civilizations are not
2. Primitive cultures are primitive, while complex civilizations are complex
3. You have to be smarter to live in an industrialized society
4. Civilization will not collapse

The Common Nonsense Falsehoods:
1. You can get a free lunch
2. Rich people have fewer babies than poor people

Remember, these are FALSEhoods. I once had a student who studied this list thinking they were all TRUEhoods. He got a perfect score on the midterm exam. Unfortunately, it was not a perfectly GOOD score…

The following posts are a continuation of this discussion:

Falsehoods Revisited #1
Is it true that Human Beings are no longer subject to Natural Selection?
What is the future of human evolution?
Falsehood: Poor people have more babies