Evolution Vs. Creationism Essay, Research Paper

The Theories of Evolution and Creationism

Jacques Favreau

12-13-99

Global Studies

Period 8

1550 words

Jacques Favreau

12-13-1999

Period 8

The Theories of Creationism and Evolution

Part I

Creationism: the belief that life was created by a god.

Creationism is the belief that all life and matter on this planet was created by a god or supreme being. It states that a god is the creator of all, and that he (or she) created everything out of nothing. This is a strong belief of many, and seriously contradicts scientific thinking.

One can not mention creationism and not say something about the Bible s creation story. It takes place over seven days in which God creates the universe out of nothing. And the earth was without shape and void (genesis 1:1)

The breakdown of creation is as follows:

Day 1 God made light and separated it from the dark, making day and night.

Day 2 God created the water below and the sky above.

Day 3 God made earth and made plants grow on it in abundance.

Day 4 God created the moon, the sun, the stars and the planets.

Day 5 God made the birds of the sky and the creatures of the deep seas.

Day 6 God created the animals and the human beings of earth.

Day 7 God rested after work.

This explanation of creation is preached in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Ever since the idea of evolution came about, (see Part II) creation scientist, have been trying to prove their theory over evolution. They cite these major issues:

1. There are no transitional links and intermediate forms in either the fossil record or the modern world, which means, there is no actual evidence that evolution has occurred either in the past or the present.

2. Natural selection (the supposed evolution mechanism, along with mutations) is incapable of advancing an organism to a “higher-order.

3. Although evolutionists state that life resulted from non-life, matter resulted from nothing, and humans resulted from animals, each of these is an impossibility of science and the natural world.

4. The supposed hominids (creatures in-between ape and human that evolutionists believe used to exist) bones and skull record used by evolutionists often consists of `findsَ which are thoroughly unrevealing and inconsistent. They are neither clear nor conclusive even though evolutionists present them as if they were.

5. Nine of the twelve popularly supposed hominids are actually extinct apes/ monkeys and not part human at all.

6. The final three supposed hominids put forth by evolutionists are actually modern human beings and not part monkey/ ape at all. Therefore, all twelve of the supposed hominids can be explained as being either fully monkey/ ape or fully modern human but not as something in between.

7. The rock strata finds (layers of buried fossils) are better explained by a universal flood than by evolution.

Using these and other arguments, Creationists (those who believe in creationism) have fought for what they believe and so far have made some interesting impacts in the nation and around the world. For instance, recently in Kansas, the school board decreed that evolution was to be taken off the science curriculum. It was not to be taught. At all.

Part II

Evolution: The belief that all life evolved, or mutated into what it is today.

Charles Darwin started off the whole evolution revolution after studying creatures in the Galapagos Islands. He published his controversial book, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, which appeared in 1859. Darwin is hailed as the father of modern theories of evolution.

Common usage of the word “evolution” is the idea that living things in our world have come into being through unguided natural processes starting from a primeval soup of subatomic particles and radiation, over approximately 20 billion years.

The idea of evolution that was stated above can be infinitely explained using a combination of the following four studies:

1. Cosmology is the branch of astronomy that deals with the origin and formation of the general structure of the universe.

2. Abiogenesis refers to first life, which is the production of living things from inanimate matter.

3. Macro-evolution or general evolution refers the progression to more complex forms of life. The way of macro-evolution, including whether or not micro-evolution over a long enough time leads to macro-evolution, can be regarded as a “research topic.”

4. Micro-evolution or speciation refers to population and species change throughout time. There are many examples of speciation, if by the development of a new “species” we are referring to development of a new population of creatures which will not breed with the original population to produce viable offspring. Micro-evolution is a scientific fact which no one, including creationists, can dispute.

The accepted ways if explaining micro-evolution are “mutation” and “natural selection.”

Mutations are “mistakes” in the genetic material used for reproduction, which can occur for many reasons (example: as a result of exposure to radiation.) Naturally occurring mutations are very rare, and it is understood that the ones that do occur, almost all have a bad effect. The occasional positive mutation, giving some benefit to the organism, provides the “new material” for natural selection to work with.

Natural selection is based on the thought that there is variation among creatures in a population. Natural selection says that those individuals who have some advantage in their environment (such as being a faster runner, having a better camouflage, etc.) are more likely to have more offspring, which makes the probability of passing the advantage on to future generations.

The Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) is typically a whitish moth covered with black spots. This coloring gives an effective camouflage for the moths as they sit on some kinds of birch trees. Like people, however, these moths can be found in a range of colors from very black to very white and all the shades in between. In a famous study in England it was found that when the white trees, on which the moths sat, became dirty (dark) from pollution, birds ate more of the lighter moths, apparently missing the darker ones because of their blending in with the trees. It was no surprise that the population of darker moths increased while the lighter ones decreased. Later on, when the city got together some better pollution laws the trees returned to a lighter color. Along with this, the lighter moths proliferated and the darker ones dwindled in numbers.

This is clearly natural selection in action, but is it evolution? Not really, unless natural variation within species that happens in all plants and animals is called “evolution.” The problem with calling this type of variation evolution is that it is very limited. There are, for example, over 150 breeds of dogs recognized by the AKC and more are added each year, but they are all dogs. You can select for dogs with long ears or short ears, go for big dogs or small dogs, but you can’t select for dogs with flippers. The reason is obvious, there are no genes for wings in the gene pool of the dog.

Because of this, dogs will be remain dogs and Peppered Moths will be Peppered Moths.

Part III

Let the party begin: The fight and contrast of creationist ideas and those of evolutionists.

The problem between the creationist and the evolutionists is that they have no common ground. Their theories are based on an all-or-nothing concept. If one is accepted, the other is discarded. That is just the way they are set up. Because of this, the battle rages on. Each side has had their triumphs and disappointments. Some of the best minds in the world are working to prove to all people that their ideas are better.

For instance, some creationist argue there is not a single known case of a truly good mutation, one having no negative side effects. This can be easily argued with using the is not response that everybody remembers from early childhood. Unfortunately for the creationists, there is scientific evidence all science is based on theory. Theory can easily be debunked, depending on how the data is looked at. The war continues.

In another instance creationists say that natural selection can only select: among already existing traits-it cannot create something new, such as dogs with wings. While this idea has not been proven false, it has not been proven true either. Evolutionists can dismiss this statement by saying that normal genetic changes take place and natural selection helps out. The spiral of argument is never ending.

The reason that the two sides can never see eye to eye on anything goes beyond beliefs into semantics. Each side uses the word theory differently. Evolutionists see theory as a scientifically provable and repeatable series of circumstances. Creationists use the word theory as what someone thinks or supposes will happen. And so creationism can be called a theory equal to the theory of evolution.

As far as anybody can see this struggle between these two camps has no finish. As long as there is no distinct evidence to prove one way or another, people will argue over these two theories and brainpower will be spent. Even if there were a conclusion to this battle, there would still be some who wouldn t believe, and so there would still be controversy. Who knows? Nothing can be proven.

Sources:

History of the contraversy

http://www.gennet.org/HISTORY.htm

Creation vs. evolution

http://www.msu.edu/user/napoleta/creation.htm

Creation vs. evolution

http://www.dtx.net/ grace/library/evolutn/lib-crea.htm

The genesis network

http://www.goto.com/d/sr?xargs=00u3hs9yoajm0OsTDCRAwmv7pZMYDqYiEQfnYUwUVTdlSbsfvyKiQLEi3Sune9Oz3yBwvwCmqoM5cWmdTPNVZZGrPY81d7VivGItn9bMddTzmcXMftjpDfuEJhE8TSXDcZjAiJA6vKjB%2FJad0qHeo6r2aVxDa3APAAULf48wMBOxOW

intro to creationism vs. evolution

http://library.advanced.org/19012/intro.htm