There are a number of common misunderstandings about evolution,
some of which have hindered its general acceptance.[42][43][44]
Critics of evolution frequently assert that evolution is "just a
theory", a misunderstanding of the meaning of theory in a
scientific context: whereas in colloquial speech a theory is a
conjecture or guess, in science a theory is simply an
explanation.[45] Critics also state that evolution is not a fact,
although from a scientific viewpoint evolution is considered both a
theory and a fact.[46][47][48] A related, more extreme claim is
that evolution is a "theory in crisis", generally based on
misrepresenting the scientific support and evidence for
evolutionary theory.[49]
Another common misunderstanding is the idea that one species, such
as humans, can be more "highly evolved" or "adanced" than another.
It is often assumed that evolution must lead to greater complexity,
or that devolution ("backwards" evolution) can occur. Scientists
consider evolution a non-directional process that does not proceed
toward any ultimate goal; advancements are only situational, and
organisms' complexity can either increase, decrease, or stay the
same, depending on which is advantageous and thus selected
for.[50]
Evolution is also frequently oversimplified as stating that humans
evolved from monkeys; based on this, some critics of evolution
argue that monkeys should no longer exist. This misunderstands
speciation, which frequently involves a subset of a population
cladogenetically splitting off before speciating, rather than an
entire species simply turning into a new one. Additionally,
biologists have never claimed that humans evolved from monkeys—only
that humans and monkeys share a common ancestor, as do all
organisms.[51]
It is also frequently claimed that speciation has only been
inferred, never directly observed. In reality, the evolution of
numerous new species has been observed.[52] A similar claim is that
only microevolution, not macroevolution, has been observed;
however, macroevolution has been observed as well, and modern
evolutionary synthesis draws little distinction between the two,
considering macroevolution to simply be microevolution on a larger
scale.[53]
Other widespread misunderstandings of evolution include the idea
that evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics, which
applies to isolated systems, not self-organizing organisms;[46] and
that evolution cannot create new physical information, although
this regularly occurs whenever a novel mutation or gene duplication
arises.[54]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misunderstandings_about_evolution
