I have a problem with this article from over at dailygalaxy.com. It’s not a problem with the content of the article, which is actually quite interesting, but rather with the headline:

Is Aging an Accident of Evolution? Stanford Scientists Say “Yes”

I understand what is meant by the headline, but the fact remains that there are no purposeful or accidental evolutionary developments. Evolution only knows how to measure developments in one way: whether or not it helps the survival of a species… and even then, evolution doesn’t care one way or another. There’s no underlying will, or ultimate goal of evolution; just a continuous weeding out of those organisms that are less adapted to survive (and occasionally even weeding out those who are more adapted that have traits that might otherwise appear to us to be advantageous). Having an evolutionary accident suggests that the opposite can happen: a purposeful evolutionary change.

As long as we continue to think of the purpose of evolutionary traits, or accidents in our evolutionary history, we’ll never truly understand natural selection or evolution.

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• Dailygalaxy.com: Is Aging an Accident of Evolution? Stanford Scientists Say “Yes”