Why is evolution so controversial?

Just on a point of information, the USA is not the world. For some weird reason, the USA is an outlier in modern Western democracies in that it has a large Christian fundamentalist legacy. The rest of us don't see any 'controversy'.

When DNA was descovered it could have shown that the species taxonomists had declared as related weren't. But it didn't, it confirmed the theory. Even now, if an organism was found that used a different set of molecules than DNA, the theory would be in trouble.

quote:

---

I do remember that there were some surprises when the DNA comparisons of families in Class Aves (birds) were completed. For example, if I remember correctly, Old World Vultures and New World Vultures were not closely related. Old World Vultures and Storks were related and New World Vultures and birds of prey were related.
  —Tanypteryx

---

I'm sure there are lots of surprises and equally lots of problems that were solved. But there were no occasions where storks were found to be closely related to, say, worms or dogs and if we found any it would be a real problem - equivalent to the rabbit in the cambrian but very easy to find - unlike the rabbit.

quote:

---

I think it is more likely that we would develop a separate Theory of Evolution for XYZ life. This is what we will do when we discover extraterrestrial life.

---

We'd have to wouldn't we? Because the current one wouldn't fit. If we found that the stork and the vulture had totally different molecular makeup and pigs and horses another, it would make a proper mess. and if the toE was wrong, it could easily have done that.Edited by Tangle, : No reason given.