What is Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

It’s perfectly understandable why a principle like Darwin’s Theory of Evolution can be overwhelmingly accepted as fact by the scientific community and yet have so many detractors in the general public. Even though most of us are reasonably well educated in basic science today, the evolution of man from lower life forms and ultimately from non-living substances is such a complicated matter that it requires considerable study in order to grasp it’s concepts. When a skeptic asks a supporter of evolution to prove it’s true, they really don’t understand what they’re asking.

That same person would never even consider asking a surgeon, for example, to explain how to do heart bypass surgery. It’s a given that the subject requires more than a few minutes or hours of explanation. But the surgeon became educated in that subject after about 20 years of education and evolution took four billion years to go from a chemical soup to man! There were billions of individual events that had to take place for humans to evolve … far more than the number of facts the surgeon had to learn. This accounts for why even scientists don’t know everything about how evolution took place. There’s just too much to know! You may not know how to perform that coronary bypass operation either but that certainly doesn’t mean that the operation doesn’t exist.

So if Darwin’s Theory of the Evolution of Man is too complicated for the typical person to grasp in a reasonable amount of time, why should they believe? Well, once again, you believe in the surgeon’s ability to perform an operation because you trust that they spent the enormous time necessary in learning the subject and procedures involved. When it comes to the theory of evolution, scientists are the one who have spent the enormous time necessary to understand the concept and completely analyze the evidence. So why are so many people unwilling to accept their overwhelming consensus that humans evolved from lower forms of life? Let’s talk about a couple of those reasons.

First, many religious people believe that the number one goal of scientists is to disprove the existence of God. That by trying to understand how the universe works, they are refusing to give God the “blind” faith that God deserves. And yet, it’s widely unknown that nearly 60% of biologists who firmly believe in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution also believe in God. They simply accept that God created life by using evolution as his method and that God gave us humans sufficient intelligence to eventually understand how he did it. Of course, that means that more than 40% of biologists do not believe in God but does any sane person really believe that they all have dedicated their life’s work to disproving God? It seems much more likely that they believe that evolution, among other scientific knowledge, makes a supreme being unnecessary to explain how everything got here. Presumably, however, very few of them are anti-religion fanatics who are driven to convert believers to atheism. In other words, they didn’t become scientists in order to disprove God. They became scientists to learn how the Universe works.

A second reason that some people might be unlikely to accept the experts’ opinion about the Evolution of Man is that they fear that their faith must be blind. That God will be angered if they question their faith in any way or if they “presume” to understand how God creates his “miracle of life”. But what kind of God gives his creation a mind capable of asking questions and then orders his creation to not ask questions? Would a God have an ego that demands such a thing? Doesn’t it seem more likely that God would want his “children” to make progress and use their “God-given” brains? Wouldn’t that make God proud? That certainly seems more likely to me. A God that requires total obedience with no questioning seems more like a God that was thought up by men in the Church who want to control other men.

Some other people may feel that all of the evidence that scientists see for Darwin’s Theory is false. They choose to ignore the fossils that clearly show a slow transition from simple life to more and more complex life because scientists can’t explain every single one of the billions of transitions. They say that the Earth is actually only thousands of years old rather than billions. In that case, Evolution would not have had time to take place. Only a “snap of God’s fingers”, magical, mystical creation could have produced the Universe we have today. But how do they discount the numerous methods of dating fossils and the Earth itself? How can they ignore the astronomical evidence that shows our Universe to be about 13 billion years old? These are not simple guesses. That dating is confirmed by several different methods that all give the same answers. Did God “plant” that false evidence to test our faith? That seems unlikely.

For any readers who don’t know what to think but have open minds, this author suggests that you spend the time necessary to resolve your belief about Darwin’s Theory of the Evolution of Man. A very pleasant way to do this would be to use popular media like the 1960 film, “Inherit the Wind” starring Spencer Tracy, Frederick March, and Gene Kelly. It highlights the fight by the “blind faithers” to keep the teaching of Evolution out of the public school system. Another great TV production was on PBS’s hit series, “NOVA” and was titled, “Judgment Day – Intelligent Design on Trial”. It’s about a court case where, as recently as 2004, the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania ordered their science teachers to read a statement to their students that said that there was an explanation for life that was equal in scientific stature to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. It said that life was way too complicated to have evolved in nature so some intelligence must have created life. The teachers refused to read the statement and the case went to court.

That TV show is especially interesting because it explains that the Judge on that case was very religious and everyone assumed that he would be on the “intelligent design” side of the issue. Then it showed how step-by-step, the intelligent design witnesses gave what they claimed were “scientific evidence”. One-by-one the scientists showed the Judge that what appeared to be proof was upon further study actually flawed. Eventually, the judge was convinced and ruled that intelligent design was not science and didn’t belong in a science class. He also stated that “intelligent design” was obviously a reworked version of creationism so it did violate the separation of Church and State. In response, his former fellow “believers” then deluged him with physical threats to the point where he needed police protection. When the proponents for God creating the Universe in six days couldn’t win with facts, they resorted to threats of physical harm against a man who previously agreed with them but was convinced through a thorough examination of the facts to change his mind.

By the time you’ve watched those two shows, you will have seen how baseless the argument is for creationism even when it’s called intelligent design to try to get around the separation of Church and State laws. Those who wish to believe that God created everything in six days just a few years ago have every right to their beliefs but that’s pure faith with no scientific basis of any kind. No proof whatsoever and lots of proof to the contrary.

My final suggestion for those who are open-minded but not convinced about evolution is that you watch a PBS miniseries titled, “Cosmos”. It’s a 13-hour delight that presents all of the evidence in an extremely entertaining way in about the least amount of time humanly possible. You will understand how evolution was able to create the world we live in today by its conclusion. If you don’t believe that the Universe and life on Earth evolved through processes that follow natural laws by the time you’re done with that series then you are most likely someone who will never be convinced and you can stop worrying about whether or not you know enough facts to make a decision! You’ve made yours!

In conclusion, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is accepted as fact by 99% of the people with educations and experience in areas that make them most likely to know. Believing that God created everything as we see it today in six days requires blind faith because there are no verifiable facts to back that up. Religion and science can live together in harmony if you accept that God created the Universe using natural laws over a time period of many billions of years. In that case, Evolution was simply a tool that God used to create everything.

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