Creationism Vs Evolutionism Essay, Research Paper
Evolutionism vs. Creationism
Two separate stories are the basis for how the World was created. The first theory is Evolution. Evolution states that we evolved through time and eventually turning into man. Creation states that God created us and that everything was created at once. The acceptance of both Evolution and Creation can end the controversy of how the World came about.
Evolution is the first of the two theories. Evolution is summed as being the doctrine of change. It roots back to a Latin term meaning unrolling. Evolution explains the belief that all living organisms have come from the evolving of earlier organisms. Evolution is around us in a lot of ways all the time. Charles Darwin put together the theory of Evolution, all though ideas of Evolution have been around for a long time.(Patent, 16-19)
Charles Darwin proposed the theory of Evolution to explain the origin, diversity, and complexity of life. Neo-Darwinism incorporates the
Davis 2
Discoveries of modern science into Darwin s original theory while leaving the basic beliefs in tact.(Johnston, 78-79) Darwin proposed that individuals with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. Darwin named this process natural selection. Darwin did not understand how or why variation existed. Today Scientists realize that variation arises through random changes called mutations to existing genes. Genes are the chemicals that determine the traits and characteristics of animals and plants. Every trait has one or more genes associated with it. Because of that, natural selection provides the animals and plants with the best genes. (Jones) Supporters of Neo-Darwinism believe that the natural selection operating upon random variation gave rise to all plants and animals. Natural Selection removes change, which makes the theory of Evolution possible. If Neo-Darwinism is correct then numerous small successive changes guided by natural selection gave rise to all animals and plants. Natural selection drives microevolution. Microevolution is defined as evolution involving small changes. Microevolution does not require the evolution of new structures or organs. Therefore, microevolution does not involve the creation of new genes. (Johnston, 79-80)
Davis 3
The theory of Evolution has not been and probably will not be
discovered for a while. Evolution has taken place through a lot of certain
ways. Evolutionists do not believe that living organisms arise spontaneously in a sterile environment. However, they could have risen from inanimate matter long ago. The conditions of the Earth back then were very different, but the original Evolution process is different than the process trying to be duplicated by Scientists.(Lemonick) The length of time it took for the original process to take place today is impossible to duplicate. Also, if a form of live did originate it would have to compete with the millions of organisms that already exist. Because of this, it probably wouldn t survive. People are uncertain about Evolution but as people s knowledge grows the possibility of experimenting and finding out the truth of Evolution can develop. (Patent, 29-36)
Humans have some connections with the theory of Evolution. The face and the form of a man and gorilla show a common ancestral origin. The earliest primates were small creatures of the trees. From them developed monkeys with fairly large brains and dexterous hands. Over ten million years ago apes may have split into two lines. They were split into the forest apes and the Prairie prehumans. Prehumans split off early from other
Davis 4
primates. Early men roamed the prairies, while apes kept to the forests and monkeys to the trees. (Lemonick, 53-59)
The idea of Evolution has itself been evolving long before Darwin, and is still changing today. There are many different modern day Evolution theories. First is the Atheistic Evolution, which is the explanation of the origin of species by only natural means. Atheism s weakness is that life had to have a starting point and this theory does not have one. Next is Deistic Evolution, which is the belief that the evolutionary processes are more or less controlled by a mind behind the universe. It also states that the creator is concerned only with events, not with individuals. Th
Davis 5
theory faces problems. Another theory is Pantheistic Evolution. This is the concept that as nature evolves God also evolves. This means simply that
God is nature. Pantheistic Evolution s weakness is the violence in nature which would make God a killer. Another theory, Agnostic Evolution
is noncommittal in regard to the supernatural. Its main appeal is to the intellectuals. Its main weakness is that being noncommital it providesreal answer to the problem. Natural Selection is the over population and scarcity of food, resulting in survival of the fittest. This theory is what Darwin is most famous for. Problems to Natural Selection are that it can explain the survival of the fittest but it cannot explain how the fittest arrived. The next theory is sexual selection. Sexual Selection is the theory that tried to explain why males and females are so different. This theory explains the differences and of the two sexes but it can t explain how sexual differences appeared in the first place. Next is mutationism, which states that species do more than just improve, but that they originate completely new traits. Mutationism was faced with growing problems such as the fact that the number of original mutations is extremely low. Also, beneficial mutations are less common and there have never been any
Davis 6
mutations that produced new organs. All of these are modern theories of Evolution. (Jones)
The next theory is Creationism. Creationism is a belief based soleyly upon faith. There are no scientific facts as a basis for this belief, solely
Conjectural theories and speculations. It is ingrained into our minds as children that a belief of a force, or supernatural enitity, is watching over us and taking care of our needs. Creationism is the product of a literal interpretation of the Biblical story of Genesis. It holds that God created the World in a single Act approximately 6,000 years ago. It also holds that human beings, animals, and other forms of life exist today much as they did then. To many creationists, the theory of evolution is made up. They argue that fossil records and other scientific evidence of evolution are either false or were themselves created by God.(England, 29-33)
Eight strong articles of evidence point weakness in Evolution and strong points in Creation. The first evidence is that there are no links between the fossil record and present times. Because of this, there is nothing to show that evolution actually happened. Second is that natural selection cannot advance an organism to a higher order. The third is that although evolutionists believe life just came about, matter resulted from nothing, and
Davis 7
humans evolved from animals. All of these points are againt scientific and natural understandings. The fourth and fifth articles of evidence are the nine out of twelve hominids that evolutionists use are really extinct apes,
and the other three are modern human beings and not part ape. This would
conclude that all of the twelve hominids are something other than hominids and are not half-human, half-ape. Evidence six and seven show that natural selection has practical, social, and logical inconsistencies. The last evidence says that they show yet more proof in the Bible. (Jones)
In conclusion, I feel that Evolution and Creation need to both be accepted in todays World. I believe there is not enough information to nail down which theory is correct and I do not believe there will ever be enough information. I think Evolution has more backups but I do not think it has the necessary facts in order for it to become true. I have learned a lot about these two theories through out this report. This paper related to my course of study this semester because it gave more information about Evolution and Creation that we studied.