The Evolution Vs. Creationism Conflict

10 Pages 2570 Words

ated with proving the theory are fossil records, carbon-14 dating, and DNA testing. These are also noted as part of phylogenetic systematics, which is the term used for classifying and understanding the relationships and history among species of the past and present. Natural selection, or “survival of the fittest”, is the mechanics of evolution. Natural selection deals with the dying of weaker offspring of an organism, and the survival of the stronger offspring. When a strong organism survives, its dominent genes are passed on to its offspring. Over time, these genes will lead to mutations, which allow a species to adapt as they slowly move to different environments or other natural change. This is a broad interpretation of how evolutionists explain, for instance, sea creatures becoming land creatures. Evolutionists believe that life began on earth when chemicals combined to produce the first cell. Throughout the course of millions of years, single cell organisms arose to life as it known today. Fundamentally, evolution is based on scientific reasoning and experimentation. As with most sciences, inaccuracies do occur through new discoveries and the theory of evolution must be rethought. Creationism deals with the theory that the world was created in a brief amount of time by a higher being. Creationism has been the way humans explain the making of the earth and the inhabitants on it for thousands of years. This has been depicted through ancient hieroglyphs, stories, and popular mythology. Although almost every culture, ethnicity, and religion that has ever believed in a higher being has its own creation story, I will be focusing on the popular fundamentalist Christian version. These creationists believe that the entire cosmos, the Earth and all its creatures, were created by God in six days between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago as described in the old testament's book of Genesis. They believe that geological records were laid down as a...