What is evolution?

A simple definition might be change over time.  A house evolves into a home when someone moves in to live there.  A car undergoing restoration is in a process of evolution.  It changes from scrap to a safe and drivable car.

Biological evolution has many meanings.

You really do have to define which kind of evolution you are speaking of and have agreement with another  person over the definition to have a meaningful discussion.  When speaking of breeds of dogs, there was a process of breeding that artificially selected for the specific breed that was the outcome of the effort.  This change in the form of the dog was done in seven to fourteen or more generations.  Each dog breed was selected from a unique breeding strategy.  In the wild, most scientist studying population genetics have a hard time seeing a population shift from one form to another.  It takes many generations to see that kind of selection.  One obvious biological change has been seen many times when domesticated (bred) animals go back to the wild and become feral.   The change in body shape and size as well as disposition can be measured as most feral animals literally “go wild” in very few generations.  Typically feral populations of cats, pigs, camels, toads or dogs disrupt the environment as these animals are often released or escape into regions not native to their original habitat.

In a few rare instances some scientist or astute observer believe they have seen evolution in action with fruit flies, rabbits, and minnows.  All of these minor changes in the animal’s color, shape or new behavior arose from pre-existing genes that gave rise to variations and, for all we know, actually contributed to the success of a type of the same organism.  Other than feral changes, I am not aware of any scientist who has witnessed the actual events that led to the evolution of an organism.  Many have reported that minnows, fruit flies and rabbit populations have changed in a region.  But wilderness observations spanning years to observe the evolution of any organism have not been well reported.  It is safe to say that all scientists who do believe that this kind of evolution occurs believe it is adaptive in nature.  Though many call this change evolution, it is not the same kind of biological change that was proposed by Darwin and requires new information in the famous DNA molecule; the blueprint for life.

Darwin thought that the changes he witnessed in breeding of domesticated animals like dogs and pigeons and the variety of different life forms he found dispersed in places like the Galapagos Islands could account for the variation that is between all life forms.  His book was entitled, “On the Origin of Species,” because he was discussing how species originate.  For instance the difference from a man and a chimpanzee he suggested, was due to an ancestral deviation from an ancient ancestor of the two lineages.  He extrapolated his observations in the minor differences between giant land tortoises found on different islands and the differences in beak size and shape of the Galapagos finches to account for enormous changes that could have occurred to produce the chimpanzee and the human being from the same ancestor.

Homology or similarities in form between species are believed to be shared characteristics.  In the case of humans and apes, both have two arms and two legs.  They give live birth to their offspring  after a long gestation of development in the womb.  Both have hair. Both have opposable thumbs.  Both have eyes that are set in the front of their head and so on.  Darwin hypothesized that given enough time an ancestor of some sort could have given rise to several lineages.  One line resulted in the chimpanzee that lives in the forest and is a tree dweller and another line, mankind, left the forest and adapted to hunting and gathering on two legs.  At some point humans or hominids (the lineage to humans) ultimately developed through minor but important changes which gave rise to a big brain, a hairless body, an upright posture and some rework of the length and dexterity of the arms and legs.

Darwin went so far as to suggest all life could have arisen from a single or a few ancestral living types.  T-rex and the red oak and human beings are related to each other by some ancient divergence from a common ancestor.  For this hypothesis to be true he neeed to know where the variation comes from and how old the Earth was to allow for the time needed for the multitude of generations to separate the two lines of evolving apes; man and chimpanzee.

It was at this same time that many scientists were proposing a departure from biblical accounts of the created order and adopting a different view of the world.  The world, the sun, moon, and the stars all looked much older than anything asserted by the Bible.  One had to rely on miracles to account for life, the starry sky, the beauty and perfection of the order of living things and the way they interacted on the Earth.  Men had their own speculations on the age of the planet, how it rotates, the origin of the moon and mountains.  After all the Bible is not a science text in any sense but completely relies on miracles to explain all that we are and all that we can see.  This did not explain, in a materialistic way, how we got here.  By departing from a metaphysical foundation, scientists began speculating, hypothesizing and searching for material evidence to explain the Universe.

Over 150 years after Darwin and the scientific world’s departure from biblical revelation we must ask if the materialistic approach brought us any closer to a better understanding of life’s origin?  Has biological, biochemical, and other sciences found the evidence needed to support the molecules to man evolutionary theory?  Are we any closer to knowing through the scientific method that what was hypothesized in 1859 has proven true?  What is the evidence?  Can we honestly abandon the metaphysical dimension of biology that once held the world’s belief in God?  Has the materialistic path to knowledge hit roadblocks, not only in biology, but the evolution of the planet, the solar system, the galaxy and the universe?  Are we foolish for rejecting God?  Or have we been led down the primrose path to scientific superstitions and ignorance because we refuse to admit the need for intelligence in the created order of things?  If this is true, what is the evidence?

Some things to keep in mind as this introduction closes: biological evolution has never been witnessed.  It has never been reproduced.  There are still no intermediate life forms living or dead.  Furthermore, the earth shows evidence of catastrophic destruction that can only be attributable to oceanic flooding on a global scale.  Whether we think it happen once or 12 times, the sure and certain thing is that the earth has been ravaged by global flooding.

There are no theories that explain the existence of our solar system with planets, moons and a sun.  No one theory harmonizes the many strange and wonderful worlds that circle our planet.  Creating the Oort Cloud that no one has seen but is somehow responsible for the birth of comets or creating dark matter and dark energy, the big bang or string theory, multiverses and making claims that our galaxy alone holds over 17 billion worlds like our own is modern science.  But these are at the best, just guesses.  And the more strange the guesses required for materialism to work, the more mythological that form of  science is.

Enjoy the challenge of this website and let the reality of our scientific discoveries lead you to a God of all power, all knowledge and of all love.


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