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Arguments against the theory of evolution
Evolution and creation debate
Theistic evolution Essay
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS III
INTRODUCTION 1
ATHEISTIC EVOLUTION 1
THEISTIC EVOLUTION 1
OLD EARTH CREATIONISM 1
YOUNG EARTH CREATIONISM 2
COPERNICAN PRINCIPLE 2
EVOLUTIONISM 2
YOUNG EARTH AND OLD EARTH CREATIONISM ARGUMENTS 3
PERSONAL VIEW 4
CONCLUSION 4
BIBLIOGRAPHY 5
INTRODUCTION
Evolution theories have been around for a long time. There have also been a lot of old- and young Earth creationism arguments. These theories and arguments are discussed in this paper.
ATHEISTIC EVOLUTION
Atheistic evolution can be defined as a belief that everything was created without any supernatural phenomenon (God). Atheistic evolution is thus basically the opposite of theistic evolution. One of the most well-known atheists is Richard Dawkins.
THEISTIC EVOLUTION
Theistic evolution is the worldview that God created life as we know it; there are some that see this as a way to use science and Christianity to find and explain how life began. Theistic evolutionists believe in old earth creationism.
Since therе are not any initial statеs of God that wе arе awarе of, and bеcause God doеs not act according to gеneral physic laws, thеre is no valid sciеntific еxplanation for how thе univеrse was creatеd. The diffеrent stеps of how diffеrent forms of spеcies dеveloped on Earth can bе еxplained by еvolutionary biologists, thеy can howеver not еxplain the purposе or valuе of evolution.
OLD EARTH CREATIONISM
Old earth creationism is defined as the belief that God created the universe during the course of a few billion years.
During the late 18th century, several geologists began to propose an age for earth based on their various studies, and it greatly exceeded the time frame of the Bible. These new studies started th...
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Dunne, K. J., 2006. Perspectives on Localization. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
Endler, J. A., 1986. Natural Selection in the Wild. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Erwin, D. H., 2000. Macroevolution is more than repeated rounds of microevolution. II(2), pp. 78-84.
Fischer, D., 2003. Young-Earth Creationism:A Literal Mistake. 55(4), pp. 222-231.
Gott, R. J., 1993. Implications of the Copernican principle for our future prospects. Volume 363, pp. 315-319.
Kuhn, T. S., 1957. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought. Londen: Harvard University Press.
Reznick, D. N. & Ricklefs, R. E., 2009. Darwin’s bridge between microevolution and macroevolution. Nature, Volume 457, pp. 837-842.
Van Dyke, F., 1983. Theological problem of theistic evolution. 1st ed. Fort Wayne: s.n.
Darwin: A Norton Critical Edition, Second Edition ; ed. by Philip Appleman; copyright 1979, 1970 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
[1] This problem with the theory of evolution was addressed by Stephen Jay Gould and other evolutionists. They postulated the punctuated equilibrium theory of evolution, which does not predict the numerous fossils predicted by the orthodox theory of evolution.
Mark Driscoll, the Pastor at Mars Hill, discusses six different views in his article, “What are the Various Views on Creation?” They are Historic and Young-Earth Creationism, the Gap Theory, the Literary Framework View, the Day-Age View and the Theistic Evolution. In each of these views, Driscoll discusses the age of the earth and the amount of time it took God to create the earth. I believe the Historic Creationism is more scriptural. Genesis 1:1 is self-explanatory when it states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. There was no time frame listed.
The second of Tinbergen’s questions Phylogeny looks at the evolutionary explanations of development, as opposed to just how behaviour has adapted, including mutations in response to environmental changes. Some of these mutations remain in species even after necessity has gone, and can influence future characteristics of that species. The third of Tinbergen’s questions looks at Causation,...
Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains the general laws by which any given species transforms into other varieties and species. Darwin extends the application of his theory to the entire hierarchy of classification and states that all forms of life have descended from one incredibly remote ancestor. The process of natural selection entails the divergence of character of specific varieties and the subsequent classification of once-related living forms as distinct entities on one or many levels of classification. The process occurs as a species varies slightly over the course of numerous generations. Through inheritance, natural selection preserves each variation that proves advantageous to that species in its present circumstances of living, which include its interaction with closely related species in the “struggle for existence” (Darwin 62).
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
Forty percent of the American population believe in Young Earth creationism. There are many different types of creationism. Young Earth creationism is the literal interpretation of genesis that states that the universe was created through an act of god 10,000 or fewer years ago. Whereas evolution is the theory that all life evolved from a single organism and the changes that take place in organisms. There are many famous debates over this topic as well.
Frequently people can not distinguish between the terms evolution and evolutionism as well as creation and creationism. Usually this is the heart of the argument: the two sides do not understand each other's vocabulary. The Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines the terms as follows: Creation is "the act of creating" whereas creationism is "a theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing and used in the way described in Genesis" (1995, p.272). Evolution is "a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state" (1995, p.402). This paper will be talking mostly about evolutionism and creationism, the terms that deal with the origin of the Earth. Another misunderstood word relating to this topic is theory. Francisco J. Ayala states in his "Arguing for Evolution" article that "In everyday speech, a theory is cons...
After Sir Charles Darwin had introduced his original theory about the origins of species and evolution, humanity’s faith in God that remained undisputed for hundreds of years had reeled. The former unity fractured into the evolutionists, who believed that life as we see it today had developed from smaller and more primitive organisms, and creationists, who kept believing that life in all its diversity was created by a higher entity. Each side introduced substantial arguments to support their claims, but at the same time the counter-arguments of each opponent are also credible. Therefore, the debates between the evolutionists and the creationists seem to be far from ending. And though their arguments are completely opposite, they can co-exist or even complement each other.
The information presented in evolution studies must be viewed with an open mind since there is no definite proof or law of evolution. The dilemma boils down to science vs. religion. God has been our creator since beginning of time, but the discoveries of recent science are sudde...
Talking on both sides of the debate, each side feels as though the other has no scientific reasoning come up with their theory. In reading the article written by Shipman, the evolutionists believe that intelligent design has no concrete evidence on how the world was crea...
Evolution views life to be a process by which organisms diversified from earlier forms, whereas creation illustrates that life was created by a supernatural being. Creation and evolution both agree on the existence of microevolution and the resemblance of apes and humans but vary in terms of interpreting the origins of the life from a historical standpoint. A concept known as Faith Vs Fact comprehensively summarizes the tone of this debate, which leads to the question of how life began. While creation represents a religious understanding of life, evolution acknowledges a scientific interpretation of the origins of life. The theory is illustrated as the process by which organisms change species over time.
The biology of development promises to formulate a main contribution to these... ... middle of paper ... ...is. Moreover, the relationship between neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory and evo-devo is highly contested (Hoekstra and Coyne, 2007; Minelli, 2010). However, the understanding of evo-devo methods and how the characteristics of the morphologies of different species diverged eventually is still comparatively limited. Craig (2010) stated that this field has obviously contributed to the understanding of genes and, subsequently, the understanding morphological characteristics of evolution in intricate organisms.
Young Earth Creationism Young Earth Creationism is the notion that the created world is not the billions of years old that many people believe it to be. Young Earth Creationists believe that the earth is instead approximately 6,000 – 10,000 years old, a large difference to billions of years. Along with this they believe that that Biblical Creation was done in the literal time of six days, no more no less. Evidence for Young Earth Creationism can be found through the dating of certain matter such as the oldest trees (by their rings), the Sahara Desert and the Great Barrier Reef (by growth) and finding them all to be under 5,000 years old. Along with these there are many other evidences such as the amount of salt in the oceans, declining
The Copernican Revolution Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought by Thomas S. Kuhn, is a book that illustrates the importance between man and the natural world from antiquity to the current date. Thomas Kuhn vividly shows us that the Copernican revolution was not only a revolution of scientific theory, but of religious, and conceptual thought as well. Kuhn states in the opening lines of his book that "The Copernican Revolution was a revolution of ideas, a transformation in man's conception of the universe and his own relation to it." Kuhn aims to show us that the transformation of Aristotle's unique, and immobile centre of the universe, to Copernicus' third rock from the sun, had an enormous effect on what we believe and value today.