Creation vs. Evolution

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Creationists have locked themselves into a country-wide battle against science for the minds of our youth and control of the intelligentsia. Why are they fighting? Over the last decade, the Theory of Evolution has reared its head with a vengeance, and creationists fear that it erodes the moral integrity of our society while promising to deliver us into a dark age. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the truth is, in fact, quite the opposite. The Theory of Evolution is supported by vast amounts of empirical evidence, and the dismissal of such can only cause harm to our society in a world where innovation and progress beget survival.

There are so many arguments against evolution that I could not list even a sizeable fraction of them in this paper. Instead I shall focus on explaining what the basics of evolution are, rebut a couple of common creationist arguments, and tell you why evolutionary science is so important to us. It is not my hope to make a believer of any possible skeptics, as science does not require one’s belief, but only to shed light upon an issue that has been clouded over by gross misinformation.

Evolution can be described as gradual change in a species population from one generation to the next through the process of natural selection, which is more akin to a process of elimination (Mayr 117-118). What this process basically entails is that over time, members of a species may acquire genetically inherited traits which provide greater odds of survivability within a given environment. Such members, being more likely to survive and therefore procreate, will pass these genes along to the next generation. Conversely, members of said species that do not possess these genes may have difficulty surviving long ...

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...sts love to point out. However, Darwin also put considerable effort into detailing how eyes could evolve from the humble beginnings of photosensitive cells and upward through various steps. Since then, scientists have observed and documented occurrences of these steps in nature, demonstrating great plausibility that eyes can, and have, evolved. Ears have only the simple requirement of a nerve that is attached to anything which may be sensitive to vibration, and a plethora of variations can be found from insects, with often a dozen ears, to humans, who are also capable to interpreting sound through tactile sensation. Brains also pose little challenge for evolution as the world in abundant with brains of different sizes and complexities, and tracing a gradual evolution of them can be further supported by varying skull sizes of early hominid ancestors. (Isaak 64-66)

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