Spring Break
Professor awarded for new spin on evolution
Brian Washburn
Issue date: 9/10/07 Section: News
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A UA biology professor will receive the top award from the National Association of Biology Teachers on Nov. 30 in Atlanta, according to a UA press release. The Evolution Education Award recognizes contributions in supporting evolution education and understanding.
William McComas said he has probably been awarded this honor because of the eight to 10 years he has spent trying to connect evolution to an understanding of how science itself functions.
"We want people to understand evolution because it explains so much about biology," McComas said. "Without evolution, biology would not make sense."
Although evolution has been a widely debated, and somewhat controversial issue, during the past few decades, McComas said he believes there is nothing to be debated, and there is nothing controversial about the topic.
"We have the fact of evolution and the theoretical mechanism of how it occurred," McComas said. "There is so much evidence that evolution has occurred. The other aspect is how it occurred and the underlying mechanism of evolution itself."
The mechanism is Charles Darwin's theory that explained how we evolved.
However, evolution did not start with Darwin, McComas said. Evolution has been around since Greek times, but Darwin discovered the mechanism by which evolution might have occurred, he said.
"If I could wish anything, it would be that we could clear up the distinction issue; evolution is a fact on one hand, and there is the mechanism, or theory, of how it occurred on the other," McComas said.
UA freshman Dustin Higgins said, "I don't believe that we came from monkeys, but I do believe that we had to have evolved somehow."
Companions to go along with this evolution debate have been religion and the issue of creationism.
Herman Cummings, proponent of a branch of creationism called Biblical Reality said, "The opposing view of evolution is not 'creation.'"
"I get tired of hearing and reading about people that say that; this is an indication of ignorance of the facts. There are no creation accounts in Genesis. The correct opposing view [of evolution] is the six days of Moses," Cummings said.
William McComas said he has probably been awarded this honor because of the eight to 10 years he has spent trying to connect evolution to an understanding of how science itself functions.
"We want people to understand evolution because it explains so much about biology," McComas said. "Without evolution, biology would not make sense."
Although evolution has been a widely debated, and somewhat controversial issue, during the past few decades, McComas said he believes there is nothing to be debated, and there is nothing controversial about the topic.
"We have the fact of evolution and the theoretical mechanism of how it occurred," McComas said. "There is so much evidence that evolution has occurred. The other aspect is how it occurred and the underlying mechanism of evolution itself."
The mechanism is Charles Darwin's theory that explained how we evolved.
However, evolution did not start with Darwin, McComas said. Evolution has been around since Greek times, but Darwin discovered the mechanism by which evolution might have occurred, he said.
"If I could wish anything, it would be that we could clear up the distinction issue; evolution is a fact on one hand, and there is the mechanism, or theory, of how it occurred on the other," McComas said.
UA freshman Dustin Higgins said, "I don't believe that we came from monkeys, but I do believe that we had to have evolved somehow."
Companions to go along with this evolution debate have been religion and the issue of creationism.
Herman Cummings, proponent of a branch of creationism called Biblical Reality said, "The opposing view of evolution is not 'creation.'"
"I get tired of hearing and reading about people that say that; this is an indication of ignorance of the facts. There are no creation accounts in Genesis. The correct opposing view [of evolution] is the six days of Moses," Cummings said.
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