Evo-lution!

 Evolution

If there was no 'Garden of Eden', no Adam, no Eve, no talking snake and no Original Sin, there would be no reason for 'redemption', no reason for the crucifixion and the whole Christian story crumbles into dust.

 

News Flash! 

Evolution is difficult. Evolutionary science is incredibly complicated. Learning even the very basics of the mechanics of evolution theory requires real effort. 

It’s little wonder that most (including yours truly…) would prefer to leave the heavy-lifting to the professional scientists, teachers and professors. It’s a small wonder that many would rather just claim ‘god made it all!’ than to actually study and grasp the intricate implications of evolutionary theory.

 

(Here, there must be a side-bar that addresses the definition of the word ‘theory’. A theory is not just a wild-hair, off-the-cuff notion that is declared without reflection or substantiation. A ‘theory’ in the parlance of science is nothing of the sort. (e.g. Your uncle at Thanksgiving may propose his theory that all ‘millennials are spoiled’ and cite his own nephew who refuses to come to the family table or purposes that the media is controlled by a certain Semitic community. (ahem) That is NOT a theory; your uncle is simply a blatherskite; he’s blowing it out his arse.)

 

Gravity, for example, is a theory. That diseases are caused by pathogens is the ‘Germ Theory of Disease’. Both ‘theories’ are the best explanation of the phenomena of gravity and disease which have been tried and tested and accepted as fact by the scientific community.

 

One is tempted to include a link to a video of Hemant Mehta listing the Top Ten list of asinine attempts to rebut evolution theory. Forrest Valkai (the Renegade Science Teacher of Tik-Tok fame) would be another video link that entices this writer. The dear reader might avail themselves of those video counter-arguments as they wish.

 

Caveat: Be prepared to think and to do further cursory research. As was stated at the beginning; ‘Evolutionary science is incredibly complicated.’ However, as a scientific theory, it is the best explanation available for the diversity of life on our planet.

 

It is no wonder that some would choose, in their utter and willful ignorance, to blurt out ‘god did it!’ 

 

Human bifurcation

Human physiognomy is bifurcated. All mammals share the same or similar traits. 

 We humans (as a species of ape), have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 hands, 2 feet, 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 lungs, 2 testes, 2 ovaries, 2 fallopian tubes, 2 kidneys and our heart has 2 chambers called ventricles and 2 chambers called atrium which are, in turn, bifurcated. We have other physical traits which are singularities; 1 stomach, 1 liver, 1 anus, 1 penis, 1 nose (with 2 nostrils) and 1 brain with 2 lobes. 

 

All mammals, with small exceptions, have the same or similar traits: 2 arms (or fore-limbs), 2 legs (or hind-limbs), 2 hands (or front paws) 2 feet (or back paws), 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 lungs, 2 testes, 2 ovaries, 2 fallopian tubes, 2 kidneys. Each mammal has a heart which has 2 ventricles and 2 atriums. 

 

Sorry to seem repetitious but the point is that the traits of nearly all mammals (such as homo sapiens are) are the same when examined. (Note: hind paws may be called feet or something else but that is a matter of lexicon rather than function.) This simple, observable fact should go a long way to recognizing that all mammals are similar and share a common ancestor. 

 

 

The Fossil Record

This idea stymies lots of creationists who try to discredit the fossil record. The common apologist will claim that Satan (or God) placed the fossils in the geologic column to ‘test our Faith’ and assert that the earth is actually not more than a few thousand years old. (Spoiler alert; the earth is estimated as being 4.5 BILLION years old.

 

Similarly, common apologists will claim that all of the mystery cults so popular in the eastern Roman Empire (e.g. Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, etc.) were placed in the historic record by Satan a thousand years before the many sects of the Christian mystery cults were active so as to throw us off the scent just as Satan (or God) did with the geologic column. 

 

What utter rubbish!

 

As I am not a biologist and this is not a paper on evolutionary biology, please take the time to investigate this further for yourself. Take a class. Read a book. Talk to a biologist. 

 

One an old saw goes: 

What would it take to disprove evolution to you?
Answer (according to Richard Dawkins or Stephen Gould): Finding a modern rabbit in the pre-Cambrian geologic stratum would disprove evolution. None have ever been found. Of course.

If one ever is, then it’s back to the drawing board.

 

“Science is just a bunch of wild guesses.”

That was what one responder claimed. He reiterated that claim several times. “A bunch of wild guessing assholes…”

It’s more than evident that this dude had no idea about scientific method, the process of peer review and specifically what the word ‘theory’ means.

In science, theory is a technical term. In normal informal language ‘theory’ might be a wild guess. (e.g. My theory is that he wasn’t hugged enough as a child.) However, in science, the word ‘theory’ is reserved for a working hypothesis which serves as the best answer to a phenomenon. 

More precisely: “A theory is a carefully thought-out explanation for observations of the natural world that has been constructed using the scientific method, and which brings together many facts and hypotheses.”

 

We’re not talking wild guesses here. There’s a lot of problems with the lexicon of science which derails appreciation. Other examples are the words ‘fact’ and ‘law’. Look them up as they are used in discussion of science by scientists. 

Back to theories; Evolution is a theory. Yes!

So is gravity a theory.

So are cells.

So are germs.

So is the heliocentric model.

Plate tectonics is a theory.

The Big Bang is a theory.

A theory is the highest level that an idea can attain in science.

 

That said, another word that serves as a stumbling block for many is the word ‘believe’. (Cue the eye-rolls. Here we go again.)

Like many words in English, there is more than one meaning for this word. That plurality of meaning stems from context. If the word is used in an informal conversation, the word belief might only mean ‘notion’ or ‘speculation’. (e.g. I believe it’s going to rain.) There is no proclamation of a deeply held tenet. It’s just an opinion based on a commonplace observation regarding an ordinary meteorological event. (Bring an umbrella.) 

However, in a discussion about religion, the word’s connotation changes with the more formal context; ‘I believe in the Bible’ indicates that that book is a basis for a deeply held religious tenet. In matters of ‘faith’, the word becomes a mighty touchstone. It takes on a technical definition specific to matter of faith much as the word ‘theory’ is a technical term in the fields of science.

 

The confusion arises when a person of faith asks ‘Do you believe in science (or evolution of the Big Bang Theory). Scientific theories do not require faith; they do not require ‘belief’ in the more technical sense of the person of faith. 

 

Whether or not you ‘believe’ in gravity, you’ll fall down.