Creation Versus Evolution - Both Arguments Can be Right Essay -- Creat

Creation Versus Evolution â€Å"Creation Versus Evolution.† What’s wrong with this title? Read it to yourself a few times, and then answer that question. We’ve all heard of the argument. Creationism, the idea that God created all the species as they appear today, versus Evolutionism, the idea that all life evolved from simple bacteria to all the species that appear today, is a familiar controversy. Ever since Darwin first published the Theory of Evolution in his controversial 1859 book The Origin of Species, the debate has raged between religion and science. But this debate is something that has always puzzled me. From the time I first understood what the Theory of Evolution was really saying, I found it difficult to reject. Scientifically, every shred of evidence in biology and genetics I have ever seen points to it, directly or indirectly. And religiously – Evolutionism does not contradict Creationism. Evolution is based on two underlying principles that themselves are not at all controversial: heredity and natural selection. Heredity is the principle that organisms pass on different combinations of their traits to their offspring. If an organism has strong traits that help it to survive, then its offspring are likely to possess some of those same strong traits and themselves be more likely to survive. The second principle is natural selection, better known as â€Å"survival of the fittest.† According to natural selection, the organisms with strong, â€Å"fit† traits are more likely to survive long enough to reproduce than are the organisms with weak, â€Å"unfit† traits; thus over time, the strong organisms (as a species, or subspecies) will survive and the weak ones will die out. In this way, only the strong traits that help organisms to survive will be preserved over long periods of time. For instance, all the long-necked giraffes that were able to reach foo d in tall trees were able to survive, while all the short-necked ones weren’t able to compete and died out. These two principles, taken alone, are not controversial. Most people seem to intuitively accept them as being true, because they make so much sense and because there is so much scientific evidence to back them up. However, when they are combined together in the Theory of Evolution, something happens. The assertion is made that, over time, species engaging in natural selection and passing on thei... ...y displaces or precludes that same faith. To react with such fear and narrow-mindedness to this â€Å"new-fangled† idea of Evolution, then, belies a fundamental problem with the Anti-Evolution Creationist viewpoint. These Creationists react with fear to this different way of thinking about the origin of life not because this different way is wrong, but because these Creationists are afraid that they are wrong in their beliefs. Secure Creationists who are confident in their faith have no reason to feel at all threatened by the Theory of Evolution; they are free to embrace it as just another argument for their faith. I believe that it is only the insecure Creationists who are Anti-Evolutionists, because on some level they realize that their faith is weak – that maybe their narrow view of things isn’t the only â€Å"right way† to look at the world. But, as Comedian Dennis Miller (and any scientist concerned with the truth) would say, â€Å"That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.† Works Cited Kimball’s (1983) Biology, 5th edition Green, Joel B., & Longman, Tremper (Eds.). (1996). Holy Bible -- The Everday Study Edition. Dallas: Word Publishing. IUK Correspondent, April 29, 1996