Species evolve exactly as if they were adapting as best they could to a changing world, and not at all as if they were moving toward a set goal.
Interpretation
Species adapt to their environment without a predetermined purpose or goal.
The quote by George Gaylord Simpson emphasizes that evolution is a process driven by the necessity of adaptation to changing environments rather than a directed phenomenon towards a specific endpoint. It suggests that species develop traits and characteristics out of survival instincts, responding to the conditions around them rather than striving for an ideal state or form.
In practice
In a science class discussion about evolution, one might use this quote to illustrate the principle of adaptation.
If a sect does officially insist that its structure of belief demands that evolution be false, then no compromise is possible. An honest and competent biology teacher can only conclude that the sect's beliefs are wrong and that its religion is a false one.
Now we do have many examples of transitional sequences.
He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material.
Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned. He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life and indeed to all that is material.
Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind
To put it crudely but graphically, the monkey who did not have a realistic perception of the tree branch he jumped for was soon a dead monkey-and therefore did not become one of our ancestors.
Can you imagine, in 2030, taking a space cruise on the very ship that carried the first human beings to Mars? I can't believe that people wouldn't line up for that possibility.
I'm on a crusade to get movie directors to get their science right because, more often than they believe, the science is more extraordinary than anything they can invent.
The heart of the matter, as I see it, is the stark fact that world poverty is primarily a problem of two million villages, and thus a problem of two thousand million villagers.
Mitt Romney's energy policy is a relic of the 19th century. We need a 21st century plan. The fate of the planet is at stake.
Whenever we find, in two forms of life that are unrelated to each other, a similarity of form or of behaviour patterns which relates to more than a few minor details, we assume it to be caused by parallel adaptation to the same life-preserving function.
Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.
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