Wednesday, October 10, 2012

What Everyone Wants To Know: Can Evolution And Creationism Coexist

By Juliette Cruz


Every human being is born a free person in the world. We are all free to take up any activity that we need to achieve as well as free to take up and adopt any idea that we may fancy. Nevertheless, the fact that we are all the same in more than one way makes the variation in choice so minor. The only differences in opinion come in when people are asked to choose sides between science and religion. The elephant in the room therefore becomes, can evolution and creationism coexist?

By definition, evolution may be described as the gradual changes in traits that can be inherited that various species underwent over successive generations. This account of how man came to be states that every life form on planet earth came to existence from the same ancestor. All living things are reported to have evolved from a single celled organism that first came to be millions of years ago as a result of chemical reactions on the earth at that time. It is said that the single celled organism eventually gave rise to more complex organisms as time went on.

Different species of plants and animals formed as time went on due to the process of natural selection. This story defined evolution as a process that only the fit could survive. The weaker offspring died while only the stronger ones were able to live and repopulate hence developing more refined species. Man is said to have gone through this too. This led him to develop from the Australopithecus form that existed millions of years ago.

Human beings developed further into Homo habilis. This was a precursor to Homo erectus which was in turn followed by Homo sapiens. The current human form came to exist after Homo sapiens. However, there were other transitional species of man in between these major stages that involved man initially being quadrupedal then gradually begun using only two feet.

Staunch believers in the faith have their own story to explain the origin of man. Theirs is the story of creationism that states that a supreme being who existed before the world became was responsible for creating the earth and all that is in it. This story is chronicled in the bible and is mostly observed by people in Christianity.

Believers of the creationist story say that the supreme entity made the earth and all that is in it. He started creation by illuminating the earth by making light. He then moved to separate land from the water because every surface on earth was covered by it. He then made plants to cover the earth and animals to live in it. He finally created humans to watch over the earth and commanded them to name everything on earth.

The creationist view about the origin of man demands great faith and strong belief that there really is a divine entity. Nevertheless, this story is reaffirmed by the presence of historical records written down years ago. These records were collected together and made into the Bible.

Can evolution and creationism coexist? The answer is no. For one account to be true, the other must be false. Science has so far failed to deduce the existence of God the creator. Religion on the other hand does not agree with the possibility of a chemical reaction that led to everything found on earth.




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