Evolution is necessary to the understanding of biology because biological species are the products of evolution; without evolution, they (and we) wouldn't exist. Evolution explains the similarities between related species, the progression of past species as preserved in the fossil record, and the existence of vestigial organs (for example, some snakes have the remnants of hind limbs, a legacy from their four-legged reptilian ancestors).

http://www.synapses.co.uk/evolve/vestsnak.gif

http://images.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/a/an/anal_spurs.jpg

The alternative to evolution would be the generation of species on an individualized basis. The problem with this is that it fails to explain any of the above observations. Why do some snakes have hind limbs? For that matter, why are some humans born with tails, if humans are a unique species unrelated to any other?

http://www.creation-vs-evolution.us/visual-evolution/human-tails/human_tails_10.jpg

Without evolution as an explanation, the diversity of life on earth would have to be explained in terms of hundreds of millions of discrete events in which fully formed organisms simply appeared on the scene. Science would then have to explain how even one such event could take place, much less one for each species. At the present time, there are *no* scientific alternatives to evolution; all of the so-called alternatives to evolution are based on premises which are unverifiable and therefore not science.
Source(s):
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Anal_spur
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/section2.html

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