Life scientists are famous for saying things like, "some of the geographic variation in our appearance surely reflects natural selection molding us to local climate, just as weasels in areas with winter snow develop white fur in winter for better camouflage and survival."

The problem with this might seem like one of semantics, but it is far more than that. I'm not going to blame scientists for turning off scripture-reading literalists from the theory of evolution, but they can be faulted for these types of word choices, which can be maddening to adherents of the theory of evolution and even those sitting on the fence.

Look at the difference between saying:

- Weasels in areas with winter snow develop white fur in winter for better camouflage and survival.

Versus

- Weasels that had the ability to develop white fur in the winter have evolved as the dominant weasel species in areas with winter snow because it camouflages them and increases their survival rate.

The former, found often in biology texts, takes evolution beyond the ongoing interplay that happens between the urge of living things (say, survival) and the world. Instead, biologists phrase their examples of evolution as though within a given collection of genes there takes place purposeful strategizing to plot a course for survival for the given circumstances they face.

It's like this:

Did brown weasels start becoming white because they had to in order to survive winters? Or did those weasels who, for whatever reason, turned white in cool temperatures, simply outlast those who couldn't?

That's entirely different than saying, because there was snow weasels began to turn white in the winter.

It's clear that that isn't the message scientists want to send, but their choice of phrasing can easily lead down that path.

Outside of the language, this issue is very important for several reasons:

On a certain level, we can direct our evolution. This is true on both direct/indirect (or conscious/unconscious) levels. Take Ray Kurzweil and the idea of bio-engineering, computer-human enhancement as an example of the first; take pollution and urbanization as an example of the other.

Second, there's no doubt that humans haven't stop evolving -- we're still somewhere on the forward moving timeline that began with our walk through, and step out of, the Stone Age.

Third, we're likely the only species to recognize that we evolved and that we are evolving. But while knowing that, there's little in the way we live that suggests this knowledge is anywhere present at the forefront of our attention.