Creationism vs Evolution

Creationism and
the study of evolution has been a controversial debate for decades now, leaving
many people on one side or the other.Creationism argues that faith should take precedent over science, basing
its beliefs on one book for guidance, the Bible.God created the earth and everything on it, taking six days.Evolutionists believe that the earth is much
older than the Bible describes, and that plants, animals, and humans are a
result of a natural progression called evolution.There were no common ancestors (Adam and Eve) from whom we came;
it was a natural selection process, stemming from inorganic compounds and
nature.For many people in the
scientific world, it is hard to take a final stance on this issue since there
is evidence of evolution, but that is where faith in God and what God has done
comes into effect.According to a great
medieval philosopher, Moses Maimonides, conflicts between science and the
Bible arise from either a lack of scientific knowledge or a defective
understanding of the Bible(Schroeder, 3).This paper will reveal some topics that these two groups debate about,
along with their viewpoints.
The beginning of
the earth, along with the birth of humans is one of the biggest and most
contentious issues among creationists and evolutionists.Scientific theory holds the opinion that the
universe is eternal, while the Bible states that there is a beginning.It has been proven that there was an
official beginning; the question that arises is when that exact beginning took
place, a time where there was neither time nor space nor matter.Christianity uses the Old Testament to
describe the beginning of life.In the
span of six days, God created the heavens, the earth, the sun, moon, water,
animals, and ended with the finalé of human beings.Other major events such as Noahs flood occurred along the
lifespan of the earth, accounting for the distribution of fossils and the
formation of the earths layers.St.
Augustine of Hippo (who was raised a Christian and later became a member of the
Manicheans) believed that the Old Testament was nonsense.He believed therefore that organic forms
were potentially in a kind of seed-form, and realized actually when the
conditions were right- when the seas appeared for instance(Ruse, 51).Augustine believed that God created
everything in one move: conception, wish, and creation were all at the same
time.This thinking was also a belief
held by Galileo later on in history.
Evolution is
defined as the development by natural causes of all organisms, those today and
those yesterday, from other forms probably ultimately much simpler and
originally perhaps from non-living substances(Ruse, 12).According to evolutionists, the earth began
approximately 4.5 billion years ago, with the explosion of life beginning
around 55 million years ago.To
evolutionists, the starting of life began as inorganic molecules that underwent
a natural transformation (through electricity or heat) to become organic
molecules.These building blocks joined
to form macromolecule chains that eventually made up organisms.The chains started to replicate and feed
off the pre-embryonic soup, which is the state of ponds and so forth as the
result of the first stage of evolution(Ruse, 62).Experiments done by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in Chicago
(1950s) confirmed this by subjecting inorganic molecules to heat and electric
shock.They were able to obtain organic
amino acid compounds naturally and rapidly.Evolution finds the origins of organisms developing along a 4.5 billion
year span, and says that humans are a new creation.It does deny though that humans are the final creation, which
contradicts the creationism theory where God created human beings in the last
day, then resting after Creation was complete.Fossil identification and geography gave evolutionists some insight as
to when earth and life began.Other
ways used besides fossil identification to guide evolution include: comparing
anatomical features, embryological analogies, and
similarities/dissimilarities.
Charles Darwin was
a strong believer in evolution and was the founder of the theory of natural
selection.Natural selection is the
theory that there is competition  for survival, mates, space, food, shelter,
etc.- in which the favorable organisms tend to be preserved by nature and the
unfavorable ones tend to die out, leading to evolution.There are two major types of evolution,
macroevolution and microevolution.Macroevolution deals with changes above the species level, while
microevolution is changes in gene frequencies within a population, which may
lead to the formation of new species.Darwin believed natural selection occurred in nature, the need to select
and breed only the best and most desirable stock.The concepts of genetics and hereditary did not come along until
later when introduced by Gregor Mendel, and later the study of evolution
emerged with the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953.
The age of the
earth has been debatable, first with creationists stating that the earth
started with God first creating the heavens and the earth.Some scientists argue that the earth already
had the properties to sustain life, as the Bible agrees.And God said, Let the land produce
vegetation(Genesis 1:11), and later on, Let the land produce living
creatures according to their kind(1:24).Nowhere in the Bible does it say or suggest that each species had its
own creation.A view that is strongly
upheld by creationists is that all living things have remained fixed over time,
God created each creature the exact way that we see the organisms today.When God created the earth and everything on
it, God said it was good.Creationists
argue that if something arose that was not perfect in Gods eyes; God had the
power to destroy it, hence the reasoning for the flood.God kept the good and destroyed the bad.
It is
scientifically difficult to take the Bible seriously because many
interpretations have been made over the decades and most people believe that
one cannot take everything within the Bible literally.For example in Genesis 1:5,8,13, it
describes how God created evening and day, and every verse following a day of
creation ends with and there was evening and the there was morning.But it is not until later on in Genesis that
a sun and moon were created to govern the day and evening.God made two great lights- the greater
light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night(1:16).This example, along with countless others
points to scientific belief that the Bible is an unreliable source, one that
specific scientific information should not be taken from.The Bible does suggest one evolutionary
change in a physical trait, the trait of longevity.Throughout the Bible, the life spans (at the beginning were
around 900 years) and sexual maturity (ranged from 65-187) decreased, for it
was a miracle for Sarah and Abraham to have a son, and she was only 89 years
old.The trend of shortening life span
and more rapid sexual maturity is similar to that observed in domesticated
animals(Schroeder, 15).This forms a
basis for todays breeding and population genetics.Evolutionists state that creationists have only one source from
which they are arguing from, and their arguments are a way of covering up what
they do not know or understand about the scientific world.This failure has come in two main ways: 1)
the failure to deal with the large amount of evidence that supports evolution
and the fact that animals and plants are different today than in the past, and
2) the failure to provide any alternative theory to natural history(Miller,
55).The real theory of creationism is
based and centered on faith, faith in God and what God has provided.Science exists because of evidence, whereas
religion exists upon faith, and, in the case of fundamentalism and creationism,
in spite of evidence(Berra, 130).
The evolutionists
take a different stand on this topic of life.No mention of a special creation is associated with the start of
life.The earth itself had the special
properties to orchestrate the beginning of life(29).Today this would be referred to as self-organization with the aid
of catalysts.The experiments done by
Miller and Urey support the statement that the earth was awaiting for its
beginning on its own time.Organic
molecules, proteins, plant life, and animal life evolved along with way.Fossil evidence was discovered that showed
life started immediately on a cooled earth.Fossils show a variety of species and show species evolving into other
species (intermediate or transitional species).The fact of the matter is that the fossil record not only
documents evolution, but that it was the fossil record itself which forced
natural scientists to abandon their idea of the fixity of species and looks
instead for a plausible mechanism of change, a mechanism of evolution(Miller,
48).For example in the western United
States, scientists were able to trace the modern single-hoofed horse to a
dog-sized creature, Eohippus, which ran around on its five toes.Also, according to animal and human
development, all organisms start out life in the same form, eventually
specializing into their specific species.For example, the human develops similar to a reptile with a few
modifications that make the human species unique: yolk sac to fish eggs to having
a tailto a 3- chambered heart (like a
reptile) to a 4 -chambered heart to reptilian double jaw joint to skin folds
(gill slits) to covering of hair to having human characteristics.
One argument
against fossil evidence is the idea that fossil dating could be
inaccurate.Fossil dating is done using
Carbon 14, but for it to be of value, the amount of C-14 must have always been
a constant.If the intensity of
radiation (specifically cosmic radiation) differed in any way, then the C-14
dating system would be flawed.Scientists discovered fossils throughout the various layers of the earth
according to the time period the organisms corresponded with.The bottom layers contained species
associated with the beginning of the earth, while the top layers contain more
recent and advanced species, especially mammals.Evolutionists feel that these findings strongly argue for
evolution.They feel that if God had
created the earth and everything on it, all fossil remains would be mixed
together.Creationists argue that the
reason for the fossils being distributed the way they are is because of the Great
Flood.Most of the time creationists
avoid this topic because of the lack of evidence they have against it.The controversy continues whether gradual
evolution took place, and if it did occur, why was it not evident in fossil
records.The ferocity of the battle
suggests that sudden leaps in the record would imply Gods direct role in
evolution while gradualism would mean randomness and no role for
God(Schroeder, 32).
Another theory
that some scientists are using to explain the beginning of the earth is the Big
Bang Theory.This theory states that
the universe began as an infinitely hot point of infinite density, which
cooled and diffused as it exploded outward(Berra, 71).Space, time, matter, and energy existed only
after the Big Bang.The reasoning for
this theory is based on our knowledge of how the universe is based on the
analysis of electromagnetic radiation, providing data that shows the universe
is expanding.Two astronomers Arno
Penzias and Robert Wilson detected cosmic microwave background radiation in the
ground, which is later the primeval light and heat from the Big Bang.This heat and light provide the formula for
the start of life.This theory has been
controversial among the scientific community as well as the religious
community, but it was substantial enough to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1978.
Another puzzling
question that is brought up among evolutionists when debating with creationists
is, what about the dinosaurs?There is
no place in the bible that talks about the dinosaur age, when these huge
reptilian creatures roamed the earth without human interference and then
suddenly disappeared.Paleontologists
and archeologists estimate the dinosaurs to have lived around 65 million years
ago, during the Cretaceous period.There are a number of speculations for their extinction:the climate became too extreme one way or
the other, the animals fed on newly evolved poisonous plants, new species
evolved and ate the eggs of the dinosaurs, or an asteroid or comet fell to the
earth, destroying everything on the earth.Recent speculation based on marine-animal families over the last 250
million years argues that large scale extinctions occur about every 26 million
years(Berra, 17).These large scale
extinctions are due a companion star coming close to the sun, disrupting the
orbits and causing comets and asteroids to hit the earth. According to
scientists, this mass extinction is approaching, but in the creationists eyes
this is the Apocalypse.
Yet, another approach
to the creation of the earth relates to how we view time.In the Bible, each day is assigned a new
creation, but is time today the same as it was at the time of Creation?Some scientists believe that each day of
Creation is related to a geological time period.As one period began and developed, God added on to it, thus
another day of creation.Each day or
time period brings something new and different to the earth.The days of creation could be seen to humans
as a 24-hour day; it is easier for us to comprehend a day in a 24-hour period
rather than in millions or billions of years.The Bible in a sense took the easier way out to describe the story of
creation to us.Deep within the Psalms
90, there is truth of a physical reality: the six days of Genesis actually did
contain the billions of years of the cosmos even while the days remained
twenty-four hour days(Schroeder, 43).The Bible relates in the first thirty-one verses of Genesis the events
that span around 16 billion years, from mere hundred words theologically to
more than a million words scientifically.It is hard to evaluate the time it took for each day of creation since
we are unable to have been there or have a first hand source; thus the reasoning
for scientists to look more at fossils and the earths strata for concrete
evidence.
How human beings
came to be on the earth is another big topic among evolutionists and
creationists.Creationists live
faithfully by the belief that God made Adam from dust, in Gods image, the
Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living person(Genesis
2:7).Eve was later made from the
ribcage of Adam as a companion.Adam
and Eve are the beginning of the human species race, and from them, all human
beings descend.Human beings were made
in Gods image, giving us a choice to become spiritual and moral beings.This is what separates us from any other
species, for human beings have a soul, guided by God.The creation of Adam could be seen differently though depending
on how one interprets the Bible.The
making of Adam relates to the body.In
the Hebrew language, the word adam is rooted in the word meaning
soil.The creation of Adam refers to
the human soul, the neshama.Legends
and biblical scholars would say that Adam was created at the age of twenty, but
it could be possible for him to be made at an earlier age and lived for
nineteen years without a soul.He
became a human being at the age of twenty when God created him with
neshama.There are several verses
within the Bible (Numbers 1:3, 14:29, Deuteronomy 1:39) that teach at the age
of twenty one becomes divinely responsible for their own actions.Before the soul was given, there was something
like a man, but not completely human.So one view could be that Adam was created at the age of twenty, and
before his creation, he had evolved from the primate species.When God finally saw a creature that God
wanted to represent Gods image, a soul was given, and Adam was created.
Evolutionists have
a different view of how human beings came into the world, believing that we
have evolved from other species, specifically the primates.Fossil records have shown that Homo
sapiens have evolved from four-legged creatures swinging through trees, to
2-legged creatures that walk the earth.Fossils of pre-historic humans show a remarkable resemblance to the
primates, all the way from the jaw and forehead, to the torso and feet.Throughout time, evolution has adapted the
human species into modern day human beings, making it possible to live in
present-day times.Although it is hard
to believe, we have now established that it was only five to six million years
ago that we split off from the ancestral lines leading to the gorillas and
chimpanzees, our closest relatives (Ruse, 69).Language developed because of adaptation as the need presented
itself.Just as we have changed technology
to make things easier for us, evolution has adapted us also, making it possible
for us to live in todays society.It
is doubtful that we could have lived in the same time that Neanderthals lived,
as they would be unable to live in todays world.
Creationism and
evolution have two very different viewpoints of how the earth and human beings
began.Creationism is based on the
belief that the Bible is a credible source, which gives the story of
Creation.In the span of six days (24
hour days), God created the heavens and the earth, the sun, moon, stars, and
all of the creatures of the earth.On
the very last day, God created Adam, a human being in Gods image to rule over
the earth.Creationists believe that
the earth is young, and that organisms are fixed, every organism that we see
today is the same organism that God created a few thousands of years ago.Adam and Eve are the beginning of the human
race, and we are separated from every other species by the soul that God gave
us.Creationists say that those who
believe in evolution are immoral.Most
frequent is the charge that evolutionists are pompous and arrogant, just the
kind of people that the First Amendment was written to protect us against, and
that they display an academic arrogance frequently typical of the nations
scientific educational establishment(Toumey, 95).
Evolutionists
believe that human beings are a result of evolution, beginning with simple
molecules to todays modern person.The
earth was made over a long period, beginning 4.5 billion years ago.Life began with inorganic molecules, and
with the help of nature, became viable living organisms.Each time period of the earth had its own
characteristics with different organisms and life forms making that period
unique, and leaving behind traces with fossils.Animals and plant life evolve, becoming more fit for the
environment.Human beings have also
evolved along the way from our primate ancestors into todays modern humans,
but we are not the final product.We
too, will change over time, becoming a different species in future generations.Along with evolution, there are theories
such as the Big Bang theory, and critiques of how the Bible views time compared
to geological time.Evolutionists
believe that God was not the founder of the earth, instead it was a natural
phenomenon, beginning with inorganic molecules evolving into todays modern
person.
I agree with both
arguments to a certain degree.As a
scientist, it is hard to discard tangible evidence that shows life has evolved
across species.Yet, as a Christian, my
life is centered on faith in God.I
believe that God created life, but I believe God did it in a way that uses
evolution.I believe that God created
everything in six days, but that each day lasted millions of years, with
different species and life forms evolving throughout that era.I believe that God structured the world so
that there could be evolution.I think
that species have to adapt to changing environments, and God made each species
of organisms so that it could survive each change that takes place.I do not necessarily believe that human
beings are the finalé; I think that we will change over the decades evolving
into higher specie.I do not believe in
the Big Bang Theory or that life stemmed from inorganic molecules.God started life, and then gave nature freedom
to develop.If God did not like the
outcome, it was destroyed by means of a natural disaster, such as the asteroid
ending the life of the dinosaurs or by the Noahs flood.If it was good, then things stayed, and life
continued.This is a hard topic to take
a definite stand on since faith is abstract, yet a way of life for Christians,
and science is concrete.There is a
need for cooperation between the two worlds though since there are Christians
in science, but it takes one to look at both sides to decide on what ones own
theory is on the beginning of life and human evolution.
Reconciliation
does not require that every scientist becomes a believer, or that every
believer embrace all aspects of science.It will be complete when we accept the need to read and understand the
Bible on the Bibles terms and when scientists, having already discovered that
there is a limit to knowledge, admit that science is powerless to confirm or
deny a purpose for life(Schroeder, 21).