Article 1 - Understanding Evolution

Darwin and Evolution Defined

Let's start by looking at the person who is considered by most to be the father of the evolutionary theory, Charles Darwin. In the mid1800s, Darwin conducted an ecological study to the Galapagos Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean. What greatly fascinated Darwin was the variation he found among species, in particular that of the Finch (a little bird), and how each island in the archipelago seemed to have its own distinct species of Finches. This, and other observations, led Darwin to write his "Origin of Species" in 1859, in which he spelled out his theory of natural selection, which most of us today know as "evolution".

Most dictionaries define evolution simply as "change", or "the gradual development of something into a different form, usually better". The biological definition of evolution builds on this, and could perhaps be summarised as such:

"The process by which organisms develop into a more complex species, by means of favourable mutations and natural selection."

Evolution Defined, this time in English

Let's create a new species, which we'll call "Quobs". Quobs are little single-celled organisms that live happily on the ocean floor. As they reproduce, mutations occasionally occur, for example an offspring being "born" with a weird long tail sticking out of its side. If that tail, however, now suddenly gives that Quob the ability to swim and therefore run away from predators, this mutant Quob is now advantaged over its peers! It now has a higher chance of surviving, and will thus go on to produce more tailed-quobs, and within several generations, all Quobs will have tails! Woohoo!

And this exactly what biology textbooks today would call natural selection, which is a posh way of saying "survival of the fittest!" Evolution is based on the fact that mutations (weird changes) occur from generation to generation, and the good changes are kept, producing improvements in the species over a long period of time.

Implications of Natural Selection

It's been about 150 years since Origin of Species was published, and the theory of natural selection is still widely accepted and studied. Incorporating physics, geology, biochemistry and others, this 'updated' theory is now often referred to as "Neo-Darwinism". Supporters of this theory believe that if the evolutionary theory is true, then:

- The earth is really old (4-6 billions years)
- All living organisms present in the world today evolved from a single celled organism
- All species are therefore related, and can be traced back to main ancestors in our evolutionary "tree"
- Humans (homosapiens) evolved from apes, and are simply a more highly evolved species, with advanced language skills, abstract reasoning capabilities etc.

To be sure, there is a lot of evidence in their favour, but this will be examined more in further articles.

Controversy and Religious Responses

This theory of evolution has expectedly caused a lot of controversy over the years. Many religious groups have recoiled against it, their main concerns being that this theory completely rules out the need and role of God completely, and puts humans, in a sense, on the same level as monkeys, or even plants.

Christianity, in general, has reacted strongly towards evolution, and has declared to the world "God still exists!" by either rejecting evolution completely, or embracing it and incorporating into their faith. The two main schools of thought are as follows (and will be explained in much more detail in the next article):

1. Creationism - Creationists believe, in general, that the world and all living creatures were created by God in six 24-hour days, as a literal translation of Genesis 1 would suggest. The earth, therefore, is probably less than 10,000 years old, and the evolutionary theory is untrue*.

2. Theistic Evolution - As the name suggests, these people believe that evolution and natural selection were the means by which God created all living organisms. The world, therefore, is billions of years old, as supported by several other areas of science, and Genesis 1 should not be interpreted literally.

*It should be mentioned that saying that creationists reject evolution altogether is partly false. Creationists believe that there is genetic variation from generation to generation, which allows organisms to vary and adapt to their environment, but these changes are better termed "devolution" rather than "evolution". That is to say, the changes resulted were due to sorting or loss of genetic information, not the increase (i.e. from particles-to-people type evolution).

Ending thoughts

One of the main reasons why I decided to write this series (LEGO) is because many people use the theory of evolution as a strong objection to Christianity, or any other religious faith in general. They say things like "Evolution is obviously proven, therefore God can't exist!" My response is simply this: "Not necessarily so." Now that we've clearly defined what evolution really means, this issue can be approached more logically and confidently. Through the next few articles, we will look further into the following topics:

- Creationism and Theistic Evolution
- The maths and (im?)probability of evolution
- The biochemical challenge to evolution
- What evolution does and does not explain

For now, I hope you have a better idea of what evolution means, and that it isn't so easy to simply say that it has disproved the existence of God completely. Join me on this journey as we continue to delve into the realm that is evolution, and see what bearings it may have our lives.

For more information, check out the following sites:
http://www.carm.org/evolution.htm
http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/index.shtml
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/Evolution/index.html