Charles Darwin- 200 Years of Controversy and Counting
Posted: Tuesday, February 17, 2009
by Gregory Akerman
Silver Discount Properties, LLC
Now, for those of you who already know my position on creationism and evolution, let's change
the genre here. This is going to be about evolution; I suppose some things will go against the bible but I will try my hardest to make it so that evolution fits right in with the Bible. I hope this leads to some thoughtful comments.
So here we have evolution. Charles Darwin wrote a book, Origin of Species, that revolutionized the world forever. Most people view it as a boxing match, "Evolution vs. Religion." Well I'm not going to write a "boxing match article," even though one day I most likely will write an article tarring apart religion using empirical data. Thats for a different time.
Ok, one thing all the religious people need to understand; We have a fossil record and MULTIPLE ways of dating fossils. We know dinosaurs were around over 60 million years ago, and we know the Universe is over 10 billion years old. For all the religion people reading this, about to write, "Well, the Bible sayings that it took 7 days for God to create the heavens and the Earth." For arguments sake, because the Bible does not state how long a day is for God, than maybe it took 7 days of God's time, which translates into over 10 billions years for the universe and around 4.5 billion for the Earth. Over time, small celled organisms developed. Given that theres a good 4.5 billion years, evolution from a single celled evolved to multi celled, and this must of happened within a good billion years. Another 2 billions years and you got primitive lives all over. I'm sure that the Earth got hit many times by asteroids and comets so life came and went. Let's talk about the dinosaur fossil record, as well as the fossils of bipedal animals and humans.
We have dinosaur fossils. They date back to over 60 million years ago. We have early humanoid fossils, a good example is one called "lucy." I forget but that fossil, of a humanoid, was atleast a few tens of thousands of years ago. If you progressively look at the fossil record for homo species, you see the evolution from ape to human. It's in our DNA too.
And whats the quam with this? Is it that people aren't willing to except that our great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great granpa is an ape? Is that really what it boils down to?
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More commentsI appreciate your passion, in this were are very much the same :-)Keep writing.
Good job of trying to be fair to both sides..and I love your ending: it was great! :-) Warmly, Barbara
Hi Gregory,Frankly I'm more awed by the fact that life could begin at all, even just one cell, let alone millions of species. Even that is a concept that is difficult to wrap my brain around. I seem to favor the adaptation model. Not sure it appears we evolved in a straight line as some species just seem to appear in the fossil record. Anyway, I suppose we'll really never know the whole of it. ValThere is so much we don't know, and probably never will. But evolution is occuring at this very moment, so atleast in a few thousand years we will notice human beings being evolved compared to today, eh?
I believe your right.
I think both Creationism and evolution are deeply flawed and does not represent the true origin of humanity.The world has been turned topsy-turvy by both of these theories, and Darwinism has been used as a justification for slavery and an excuse for colonial rule, claiming non-European are less civilised than their European counterparts
Ok, Gregory, I'll bite. Are you aware that the various bones of "Lucy" were found a great distance apart? Science changes it's position too many times to keep up. Too many assumptions and how can we know the accuracy of the "dating" equations? I enjoyed the article very much. Great food for discussion.
Gregory,As a Christian, I don't look at Genesis literally. It does not lessen my belief in Jesus Christ as my savior, however, nor the fact that I believe in every single one of Jesus' miracles -- from his conception to his rising.Thanks for an interesting article. I loved Nat Geo's article on Lucy from years past.Nancy
Gregory, you know I like your articles, they are always so thought provoking, but if my ancestor is a great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great granpa, and he was a ape...what a good lookin' ape he must have been!! I also think my great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great uncle was Ally Oop, then again, he must of been really good lookin'!!! hahahahahahha. Your artical was again very thought provoking, and most folks will tell you especially Christians like myself, (Souther Baptist), I will tell you what you were told before by another one of your readers that it does not deter what I believe in, rather I choose to believe in both....!!! I do believe in evolution, only in certain "Proven" extent in animals or fish, even fowl. Most scientist do not believe in God, rather, they believe in evolution. I mean evolution is still going on to this very day, it is nothing new, look how the birds of pray turned into dinosaurs, i.e. the raptor, it was a leathal dinosaur, totally meat eater who's tailbone was facing backwards like that of a bird. That would be a part of evolution. Some catfish used to have legs, some still walk on their fins that used to be legs, to this very day, the albino catfish was one of them, they used to be able to walk on land to get from one pond to the other....amazing stuff. Religion, as I'm sure you know is soley based on "faith of ones beliefs". I like others, have questioned the probably of Moses living to be hundreds of years old, like you say, how long was the year? No one knows, yet they believe because of "faith" in what the Bible says. Then again you could argue the point, how many times was the Holy Bible revised, and what was lost in interpertation? No one knows. So to claim the Holy Bible is dead accurate, would be a misnomer. Again, you got me going!!! hahahahahahaha, oh your good. Loved the thought provoking article...and just for the record, I'm still a Southern Baptist!! hee..hee..hee.....your pal, and friend in pen.....GaryHello Gary, thanks for the comments as always...I have no problem with my great (and add 20 more greats) grandpa was an ape; we share too many genetic markers sp its gotta be true.
Gregory, everything you state so dogmatically is nothing more than supposition. There is not one fossil record showing any advancement between species. Not one. Also, if God can create the earth in 14 billion years, he can also build it in 7 days, with various elements at varying points in their half-lives. He would have had to do that in order for life to be sustained as it now is. Lucy is one more of their fraudulent schemes. They found no hands or feet, so they made her "human" feet and callled her a missing link. You need to read deeper into those who you hold so accurately. I have pages of quotes from hard shelled evolutionists who admit they have no proof that any species ever advanced from another.Joel, the point of the article was for people like you (extreme Chritians) to realize that Evolution is compatable with Religion.Macroevolution is anything but compatible with the Bible. Nobody, that I know of, denies evolution within species. Even the Bible gives examples of it. I know that sometimes I come across as being angry. I have a lot of respect for you and I am not in the least, angry. I just need to straighten you out. :o)Peace!Well the first thing you have to do in order to believe in Macroevolution is believe the Earth is older than 10,000 years...Once you have a timeframe for Earth's age; which is approx. 4.6 billion years, one can see how macroevolution is possible and certainly happening. If microevolution is happening, than microevolution leads to macroevolution given enough time.For example, if in microevolution, a small thing changes in a creature, than 100 million years later, (10 million generations later) the creature will be completely different.In a way, think about plate techtonics. Every X amount of years all the continents are together and called Pangea, and than X amount of years pass and they get arranged as they are now. But in a good 20,000 years the continents are not going to be live they are today, I mean they will not be like pangea but they wont be like they are today.
The fossil record shows changes over time - the life forms you find in older rocks are typically very different to those found in later ones.There are no birds found in the oldest rocks for example. All the most ancient fossils found are of relatively simple creatures compared to those we see later in the fossil record, or living today.Also, the fossil record clearly shows gradual change in lineages over time. This isn't a matter of opinion, it is a matter of fact. For any explanation to be potentially true, it must be able to explain this fact.It is possible, though unlikely and unsupported by evidence, that a God created the universe at a point with the various elements at various points in their half lives, and at the same time created all the fossils in their layers etc.Such a God would have to be a deliberate deceiver though, as they would have consciously created a universe in such a way as to make it look as if the natural laws by which it operates today had shaped it into its current form over billions of years.There would be no need for an all-powerful being to do that in order for life to be sustained as it now is. We could survive just fine without a fossil record showing changes in earth's life forms over time for example. There'd be no reason for a God that wasn't a deceiver to create such an elaborate and strongly supported "false history".Strictly speakling, all scientists and non-scientists alike would have to admit they have no certain *proof*, of anything, since proof only applies within mathematics and logic.Observations about the real world are not "proved" but are supported by evidence.Speciation has been observed though, many times, and this has been documented in many peer-reviewed, publically accessible scientific papers.If you want to see how wide the scientific consensus on evolution is, I suggest googling for Project Steve. Here's a quote from wikipedia:"It was originally created by the National Center for Science Education as a "tongue-in-cheek parody" of creationist attempts to collect a list of scientists who "doubt evolution," such as the Answers in Genesis' list of scientists who accept the biblical account of Creation according to Genesis[1] or the Discovery Institute's A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism. The list pokes fun at such endeavors in a "light-hearted" manner to make it clear that, "We did not wish to mislead the public into thinking that scientific issues are decided by who has the longer list of scientists!"[2]However, at the same time the project is a genuine collection of scientists. Despite the list's restriction to only scientists with names like "Steve", which in the United States limits the list to roughly 1 percent of the total population,[3] Project Steve is longer and contains many more eminent scientists than any creationist list. In particular, Project Steve contains many more biologists than the creationist lists, since about 51% of the Steves are biologists.[4]"Of course, having a lot of names on a list isn't a powerful argument really - it is merely argument from authority. But evolution remains the only credible scientific explanation of the diversity of extrant life forms, and the change over time shown in the fossil record.The authority, the evidence and the logical probability all overwhelmingly support the theory of evolution being accurate.Wow, you should of made this into an article of your own, but sense you didn't, I have to do alot less typing and tell everyone that Ben is correct and everything he said I was going to write (you saved me alot of time Ben).
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