As we showed you through our demonstration, the main idea of this chapter was that survival of the fittest is not equivalent to evolution. It is not progress, only a change. Darwin’s theory does not consider any stage of a species’ development to be superior to any other.

The book basically says that we’re not as great as we consider ourselves to be. We have actually only been around for a fairly insignificant amount of time in comparison to other species. Any changes we might have undergone over the years (like average height) does not make us “more evolved” or any better than our ancestors. We are just different. It is presumptuous of us to think that we have reached perfection.

His claims in this chapter are based purely on scientific reasons.

Gould uses the arguments of Charles and Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry and Julian Huxely. He does not make many of his own points, but instead restates their arguments in simpler terms.

His entire argument is secular. None of it has To do with religion. He never mentions Creationism, but does evaluate the theory of Evolution.

Darwin tries to compromise his stand on The validity of evolution by making a Distinction between two kinds of struggle:

This is an “abiotic” competition. It Is the struggle “against the rigors of The physical environment.

This is “biotic” competition. It is a struggle “directly against other organisms for limited resources”.