Evolution
The idea of evolution has been hotly contested ever since Darwin shared his thoughts on the matter. Many Christians believe that it leaves God out of the picture or at least lessens his importance in creation to that of "first cause." There are also unbelievers who have problems with evolution, though it seems so far to me to be a misunderstanding of the words used when discussing evolution. I myself believe evolution is a fact. It certainly is the best current explanation for things so far, that I know of.
A lot of people have problems with people who believe evolution is a fact because the word "theory" is often used in conjunction with "evolution." It seems to be widely believed that something can be a theory or a fact, but not both. Therefore, if evolution is "just a theory," people probably shouldn't be so enthusiastic about believing it's a fact. The problem with this is that evolution can indeed be both a theory and a fact, and it is. That things change over time has been observed both directly and indirectly. Why would we have dog breeding contests, for example, of we couldn't breed dogs to have traits we consider favorable? Domestic dogs as a whole are related to wolves, but changed over time as certain canids continued to be the domesticated companions of humans.
The fact of evolution has been established, so where does the word "theory" come in? The theory aspect of evolution involves not whether things have changed over time, but how things have changed over time. The theory of evolution, as science uses the term, is not merely guesswork, but the best current explanation of how the process occurs. Scientists use the word "theory" to identify the current understanding of how things work (i.e., natural laws).
There is also a widely held belief that evolution can't be observed. However, evolution has been observed directly on a small scale. Viruses evolve to resist antibiotics. Insects evolve to resist pesticides. In the lab, there have been various experiments performed on flies. It is this small-scale evolution, also known as "microevolution," that contributes to the major forms of evolution that many people have problems with, known as "macroevolution," such as the evolution of the human species.
This brings me to a side note. Another common misconception of the theory of evolution is that evolutionists supposedly believe that humans evolved from apes. We don't. We believe that humans and apes have a common ancestor.
Another misunderstanding involves the Second Law of Thermodymics. The misconception comes when the Second Law of Thermodynamics is stated in such a way as "The entropy of a closed system cannot decrease," or "Order cannot come from disorder." However, life does not exist in a vacuum. Inanimate things such as the sun affect life. There are also examples of order coming from disorder. Snowflakes are an example of this.
Well, that's all I'm going to say about this for now. I recommend you go to The Talk Origins Archive, which was a big help in making this article. I almost feel bad relying on it as much as I did, but they can explain evolution better than I can right now.
The Talk Origins Archive.
Back to the main page.