Popper and the Theory of Evolution A Critical Evaluation

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             "I wished to distinguish between science and pseudo-science; knowing very well that science often errs, and that pseudo-science may happen to stumble on the truth." (Popper, "Conjectures and Refutations", 1969, Pg33) .
             Popper claimed that "the criterion of the scientific status of a theory is its falsifiability, or refutability or testability" (Popper, "Conjectures and Refutations", 1969, Pg.37) According to his claim, if a theory can not be tested by experiment, or can not be falsified by experimental data, is not scientific. This claim invoked the famous debate over the scientific nature of Darwin's theory of evolution. In fact, Popper made his astonishing claim that: "Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a meta-physical research program" (Popper, "Unended Quest", 1976, Pg 168), which has evoked the outrage of evolutionists worldwide. .
             Before we set off to scrutinize the scientific nature of Theory of Evolution, a brief summary of the theory is necessary. In this essay, I shall interpret Darwin's Theory of evolution as follows: .
             A species is a population of organisms that interbreeds and has fertile offspring. Living organisms have descended with modifications from species that lived before them. Individuals within a population vary in their traits; some of these traits are inheritable passed on to offspring. "As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form." (Charles Darwin, "Origin of Species", Introduction, Pg. 2 ).
             There are two key words in the above theory demand that our attention in order to postulate our arguments well: "adaptation" and "conditions of life".