Conclusion about the contribution of the study of evolution to the well-being of mankind.
Aside from the many practical uses of the information learned from the study of the theory of evolution, there is a more subtle and less easily defined reason to study the subject: the pursuit of evidentiary truth about our world and ourselves; how we got to where we are; why we function as we do; and, for that matter, it is fascinating to know about the world of bugs, plants, extinct animals, extant animals, rocks, oceans, etc., etc. Humans are curious beings, and we are most curious about ourselves. Since time immemorial, people have strenuously strived to learn about the hows and whys of their existence. Thousands of religions have provided answers based on the supernatural and tradition which have offered comfort and solace or fear and subjection but are satisfying to the majority of people of today as they were from the earliest recordings (pre-historic and pre-writing) of mankind on earth.
The ancient Greeks sought answers from the natural world around them and began fostering scientific investigation with the underlying desire to know about the real world they were experiencing. That drive persists in people today who, for example, find it overly difficult to believe that the planet earth, and, in fact, the universe, began in about 4,000 B.C. and was completed in its present form in six working days. Those people wanted to have plausible answers about the age of rocks, to have explanations about the very old appearing skeletal fossils, some of which looked rather like humans, but less refined.
The search for a unifying set of concepts about these discoveries led, in time, to the postulation of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection which provided a framework for learning about and eventually to the understanding of the processes of change and many of the systems of life itself. Pioneering minds posed propositions about what was happening—change over time. Their successors provided answers about how the change happened(s) in molecular genetics and evolutionary development. The compendium of knowledge is now staggeringly large and complex and, most important for the present discussion, absolutely fascinating. As Darwin put it: “There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one: and that whilst this planet has gone cycling according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved”.
Evolution is a fascinating and important field to know about, especially since it is concerned with the very core of life’s processes and changes. It is history, basic biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, anthropology, geography, mathematics, anatomy, physiology, botany, geology, archeology, and a host of other disciplines. The studies already done and that are being done every day around the world are of highly exacting quality and rigor. That alone is exciting; the data produced has the consistent and verifiable ring of truth. The conclusions are roundly debated, and it is incumbent on any researcher who ventures to write on the subject to be sure of his/her data since someone will retest it. That kind of truth, shorn of any anecdotal or personal bias in the end, is most satisfying to the cadre of people who delve deeply into it. It is biblical in its depth and scope: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Holy Bible, Gospel of St. John, 8:32.