Evolution: The Basics
Before the publication of Charles Darwin’s book, “The Origin of Species,” most of the Western Civilisation held to the belief that it was God who created the universe, life and the individual species that inhabited the Earth. That was until Darwin’s “dangerous book” challenged these beliefs about a creator God. Since then, the idea of evolution has grown far and wide; giving courage to atheists who, at last, had an intellectual hypothesis to hang their disbelief in God on. Much of the evidence for evolution that Darwin offered has been added to and there is a wide span of work dedicated to killing off the idea of a God today. However, I could never challenge every notion and so I will only give a brief examination of the main themes of Darwinism here.
The general theory of Evolution is what most people believe to be the best evidence of why we are here. Secular scientists particularly favour it because it best serves to remove God as a Creator and eradicates any obligation to follow any code of behaviour that restricts personal responsibility to a higher standard of morals. Not everyone would agree with this, but it certainly is a very good way of conveniently justifying any belief that at the end of our lives that we will have to give an account to God. I’m not proposing evolution is something that all unbelievers in God know everything about, but just enough by what experts have told them, to lose any real need to seek out the truth and find other answers to the thing we call life.
The theory of how plants and creatures evolved.
Evolution suggests that any single species (such as Dogs, cats, pigs, or humans) can and will change over time, by gradually mutating. By small changes in structure, over the course of millions of years living things not only modify but can change into a different species altogether. This seems like an implausible claim until an explanation is offered to justify why the theory of evolution has caught on. It’s simply down to the earth being very old and because of this that living creatures have fostered new features over a long stretch of time.
Believers in a Creator God, on the other hand, view that all species are fixed; all are uniquely designed by God and do not change from one species to another species, no matter how much time may elapse. The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle called this the: “fixity of Species.” No species changes, nor has ever done so.
It’s also true that a few theists however do not deny obvious small changes within a species, these could have even been the work of God after all. Mild variations are possible, but there is no certain evidence that a single species has ever altered and over time become something else.
According to evolutionists, the earth is around 4-5 billion years old. The evidence for this claim is presented in the following:
1. The tree of life and
2. Our Earth’s Fossils
Tree of life
The Tree of life theory argues that all creatures came from one life form, many millions of years ago and that all other species, as a result, evolved from it. From fish, creatures that walk on the earth, winged animals and mankind – each one evolved from just one cell being.
What is interesting is that we do share genes with other creatures, such as monkeys. However, there is no factual evidence to link us to monkeys right now. If this were the case, then where is our very own ancestor that links us directly to the monkey species? The ancestor that transitioned us from who we once were to who we are today cannot be found! Despite attempts, none has been identified – hence the reason why we call this transitional man - the missing link.
It’s evidenced that humans do have a similar DNA structure to other animals, but this is not evidence that we all came from a single cell. In fact, it could be argued that having similar DNA points toward God’s blueprint for life; God who is able to replicate a unique design feature and use it repeatedly throughout His own creation. DNA and similar skeletal structures are common design features that work well across many species and do not immediately point toward an evolutionary model, but rather God’s model of design.
Fossils
Fossils are leveraged by evolutionists to explain that over the course of millions of years that there has been a full range of our ancestors that, although they don’t exist anymore, indicate what modern creatures once were. According to some scientists the fossil records, although incomplete, are evidence that we must have evolved. Birds are covered in feathers and reptiles with scales. These structures are very different to one another, but there is not a single fossil specimen to support the claim that feathers evolved from scales.
One principle of what makes science a provable fact is that something must have been observed. Fossils are usually dead animals in rocks, and no one has ever witnessed how they got there. Conversely, from examining fossil artefacts there is still no real evidence that proves that one species ever came from another because in the assembly of fossils there are many missing fossils that reflect slight changes or mutations – never found!
The theory of Natural selection
Darwin called the mechanism of Evolution – Natural selection. We’ve already examined the acceptance by many that over millions of years numerous species of plants and animals changed slightly, eventually giving way to one species turning into a new species.
To explain how this happens we must think of a population of a species that copies themselves from one generation to another, but not perfectly - in some copies there are positive errors; something that aids the species to adapt to a changing environment. It is these errors that led to greater advances in the ability of the offspring to survive. Those that were less able to adapt – just died out. The improved species lived on. These then made copies of themselves and they, in turn, were not perfect, they also had errors that were more advantageous and more able to adapt to their environment to survive. Thus, these copies made copies of themselves once again.
Skip a few generations and the population of the same species copied themselves again with certain imperfections, within these copies, there were certain traits that improved and were better than the generations before and so on and so on. I think you get the picture. Over time these small changes that initially enhanced a species to survival went on, but those that remained the same died out, due to an increasingly hostile living environment. In time enough changes were established in order for what once was one sort of animal or living thing to transmogrify into another completely
The biggest question of all: The origin of life
Perhaps the biggest question that Charles Darwin failed to answer immediately is where life originated from. In his book the Origin of Species, he omitted this question entirely. It was only sometime later that he explained in a letter to a friend that he believed life began in a small warm pond where all the elements required for life were found. Seemingly, these lifeless chemicals were ignited together when a source of energy like a strike of lightning hit the water.
Did Darwin leave out the origin of life on purpose because he hadn’t thought it through? Judging from his later explanation it would be feasible to conclude this. Why was he not willing to commit to any real answer, as an explanation was important to the coherence of his evolutionary theory.
What’s clear is that dependent on your own worldview you might accept either Darwin's theories about how life began and how it has transitioned until now. Accepting all its inconsistencies, holes and missing information. Or you’ll believe that it was God that created the world and put life and breath into His creation.
To conclude and importantly add. God is not constrained to creating something and then not having any power to change it at any time. Therefore, elements of things being able to evolve can fit God’s purpose too, although I am not proposing it here completely. However, creation is not fitting with atheistic ideas because their view puts forward the idea that a creator is not required. Logically then, changes because of evolution are not strong evidence against there being a creator because God can evolve any of his creations according to his pleasure.
To sum up. Evolution, although considered a scientific fact by many is not logical and is wilfully incomplete. Darwinism in many people’s opinion is just another belief system with badly thought out ideas akin to wishful thinking.