Avraham Sonenthal (Letters, The Scientist, July 7, 1997, page 10) challenges readers to come up with "a practical application of biology that would have been impossible were it not for the hypothesis of evolution." While one can never prove that something would have been impossible, there are a number of very practical applications that would be highly unlikely were it not for evolutionary theory.
The most obvious application is the use of animal testing for biological and pharmaceutical research. Indeed, many animal rights advocates deny the existence of evolution in order to try and refute the logic of animal testing. The logic is simple: If evolutionary relationships do not exist, then it would make no sense to test a drug intended for human use on mice, dogs, or primates. One cannot extrapolate results from one species to another unless one accepts the theory of evolution. The fact that scientists are ...
