"Recall that the term “evolution” can be used in at least three different ways.
Evolution #1: Change over time — small-scale changes in a
population of organisms (often called “microevolution”).
Evolution #2: Universal common descent — the view that all organisms are related and are descended from a single common ancestor.
Evolution #3: Natural selection and random mutation as the main cause or mechanism of change during the history of life — the idea that an unguided process of natural selection acting upon random mutations is sufficient to produce the new forms of life that appear during that history as well as the appearance of design that living forms manifest.
Neo-Darwinists affirm all three meanings of the term “evolution” and uniquely affirm the third meaning — the idea of the creative power of the mutation and natural selection mechanism.
Neo-Darwinists affirm all three meanings of the term “evolution” and uniquely affirm the third meaning — the idea of the creative power of the mutation and natural selection mechanism.
Sometimes, popularizers have conflated these definitions by treating evidence for small-scale change over time (evolution #1) as if it provided evidence for universal common descent (evolution #2) or the creative power of natural selection and random mutation (evolution #3)."
Stephen Meyer
