Type of reasoning pattern | Specific explanation | Operational definition | Example of explanation (Fly question: “at one time there were no fruit flies on the Hawaiian Islands. Scientists think that several million years ago, a few fruit flies came to the islands. Now there are more than 800 different kinds of fruit flies throughout Hawaii. How would you explain these observations?”) |
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Evolutionary reasoning (ER) | Evolution term | Uses the term “evolution” | The different kinds of flies are the result of evolution |
ER | Natural selection | Organisms with adaptive traits are more likely to survive | Some flies mutated and were better able to live on the Hawaiian Islands, so those flies had more offspring than the others |
ER | Common descent | Recognition of a common ancestor (implication that this was a different species) | The new kinds of fruit flies came from the first fruit flies on the Hawaiian Islands |
Intuitive reasoning (IR) | Need-based adaptation | The organism changes to meet a need or purpose; a functional or adaptive goal-directed behavior | The first fruit flies needed to change into different kinds in order to live on the different Hawaiian islands |
IR | Desire-based change | Use of mental states, skills or conscious effort to explain change | The first fruit flies wanted to change so they could live on the different Hawaiian Islands |
IR | Proximate cause | The new organism has always been in existence; either undetected or brought from somewhere else | The different kinds of fruit flies came from other places |
Creationist reasoning | Intentional design | Each organism was created speciallya | Special fruit flies were created to live on Hawaii |