[Senator Bedfellow]

This of course creates the first conflict: How can we determine 'better' or higher without some standard outside ourselves.

Evolution is defined in terms of how well one is adapted to one's environment. Any notion of "better" or "higher" is purely your own value judgement.

[will of the people]

Shouldn't it be called the 'Theory of Random Change and/or Adaptation' then?

It seems to me that the word 'evolution' is pejorative in the positive sense.

Also, all the historically factual evolutionary charts I've been shown have certainly demonstrated increasing complexity.

It is not I who have coined the phrase 'higher life forms' in respect to the evolution of species.

Perhaps it time for the theory name to evolve, or purely on my value judgment, devolve.