Darwin's Doubts

The Creationism/Evolution Continuum Personal Response Essay In her essay entitled “The Creation/Evolution Continuum,” Biological Anthropologist Dr. Eugenie Scott seeks to dispel the false dichotomy that is often posited between the proverbial “creationists” and “evolutionists” by differentiating the religious, philosophical, and scientific beliefs of several subgroups within this divide. The continuum, as illustrated in the essay, depicts a line separating “Creation” from “Evolution,” marked by eleven distinct viewpoints that are then individually outlined within the essay. The most dogmatic religious and scientific viewpoints occupy the poles of the continuum and represent an inverse relationship between belief in modern science and ancient

The Japanese attack on Darwin on the 19th February 1942, did not happen by chance but from the work of a major contributing factor leading to various consequences and eventually cementing the event as a significant one.

Although Darwin’s (1809-1882) work in evolutionary observation might appear radically different from those focused on other areas, the theories he developed from these observation lead to such groundbreaking publishing’s as The Origin of Species. These intern caused an upset within the then accepted norms of philosophy and religion, had a profound impact on the academia, and further

The late Stephen Jay Gould, a noted paleontologist who once described himself as an “agnostic leaning towards atheism,” wrote the classic treatise Evolution as Fact and Theory for Discover magazine back in 1981. His distinguished career and scientific achievements did earn him respect amongst his peers, but to the general public he is best known for his popular science writings and, to smaller circles, as a champion of evolution. As his treatise was written for a non-academic, science themed magazine, a basic understanding of science, and specifically evolutionary mechanics, was assumed of his audience. The treatise itself is on the often overlapping distinction between “theory” and “fact”; two words, he asserts, that creationists

One of my interesting article is an article from the national geographic called, ”Was Darwin Wrong?” is an interesting article because I was able to learn something new and able to find it fascinating. I found this article interesting because I was able to learn something new, which is the idea of the natural selection. Charles Darwin was able to explain the main process of the natural selection, which is able to talk about the evolution. In this case, the process or theory were the organisms is able to properly adapt to their own environments that tend to survive and produce more offspring.

At the beginning of the essay Gould made a clear reference to a dear friend, Kirtley Mather, who “was a pillar of both science and Christian religion in America” (Gould, 1981). Comparatively, this appealed to the emotions of the reader, unlike most scholarly works—Gould reminded the reader of his humanity. Often, Christians relate evolution as being the work of a devil, or some form of subhuman, out to misguide their faith; therefore, the reader assumed this was Gould’s way of facilitating a viable connection with biased readers before undermining creationism. Darwinism is known as the theory of evolution, and creationists repeatedly utilize a mistaken vernacular of the word “theory” to denounce evolution. Although, a theory is “part of a hierarchy of confidence running downhill from fact to theory to hypothesis to guess” (Gould, 1981).

Science and religion might be two different subjects, but in a way the Bible’s Genesis 1-3 and a portion of Darwin’s argument in The Origin of Species have similar ideas. To start with, Darwin challenges a proportion of the first chapter of Genesis. In Genesis, it states that in the fifth day of the world’s creation, “God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind (Genesis 1:21).” The bible doesn't mention that the animals that God, a supreme being in Christian religion, created didn’t go through changes, that God made them according to what is good for the

In our studies of Intelligent Design (ID) theory and Creation Science, I found little information that seriously challenged the theory of evolution. However, there was one event that appeared to defy the logic of Darwinian gradualism: the Cambrian Explosion. This event was presented by ID theorists as proof of design--something which science is unable to account for. Unfortunately for ID proponents, this is not the case. There are several scientific explanations for the Cambrian Explosion. I will give an account of the Cambrian Explosion, present the ID arguments relating to it, and give some scientific explanations of the event.

Since the publishing of the iconic “On The Origin of Species” in 1859, Darwinian theory has held precedence not only in science, but in education and everyday life. Creationism is ignored on a regular basis by saying, “This explanation is not within the scope of science” (Pearcey 169). As a result of its scientific backing, Darwinian evolution is considered as fact and not as a theory. When thoroughly examined, there are numerous flaws that disregard Darwinism in every aspect. Contrary to popular belief and scientific preference, Darwinism is scientifically and philosophically inadequate. It cannot explain the origin of life, and has displayed disastrous consequences towards

Out of all of Well’s critiques for evolution, the one I found most compelling was Darwin’s tree of life. It honestly was very hard for me to pick an argument that I thought was compelling, because all of the arguments have far too many holes in them to seem realistic to me. I may have a biased view, since I am a Christian, but this argument of a common ancestor seemed like the most viable of the arguments because I do think that we all come from one ancestor, except, I think we come from Adam. I do think that this argument has the most power to me because of its potential to be true. Although fossil records indicate something more similar to the Cambrian explosion stated in the book, Well’s did admit that he could not prove to Strobel that

The beginning of the Cambrian Explosion is normally thought to have occurred about 542 million years ago, during the Cambrian Period at the start of the Palaeozoic Era. This ‘explosion’ happened over millions of years although it is described as rapid in geological terms. In this period of time, the Earth saw the rapid appearance of a wide variety of animals. Ecosystems became much more complex in the Cambrian Period to those that were seen in Ediacaran Period. As the variety and number of new organisms increased, they started to occupy new marine habitats and environments. Cambrian seas saw many animals of different shapes and sizes; some lived on the sea floor while others swam in the water.

A common misconception is that On the Origin of Species was the introduction of the concept of human evolution. In fact, a discussion of human history is mostly avoided from the book. Darwin did not directly address the comparisons between animal and human evolution until he published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex in 1871. Darwin introduced not only a model for the physical evolution of man, but also attempted to graph the process of man's mental evolution. He further tried to break down the barriers between man and animals in 1872, with his work The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. By observing facial features and voice sounds, Darwin asserted that man and nonhuman animals exhibited signs of emotion in

The article, “A Matter of Scale,” urges the audience to observe the small and extraordinary components of the biosphere and acknowledge its genetic variations as explained by Darwin’s theory of evolution. However, Kelly’s essay, “Evolution: An Article of Faith,” considers Darwin’s theory as a “false religion” suppressing God’s ability to create the “work of intelligence.” (Evolution) The heated debate over the credibility of Darwin’s theory of evolution has led to the division of scientific and religious groups. Devoted, religious people discover two major flaws with Darwin’s theory of evolution regarding the inaccuracies of the fossil record and the contradicting phrase “survival of the fittest” that has passed on harmful mutations to next

Some reasons why beaks were thought to be so useful for testing Darwin’s theory of natural selection was because it seemed that the more favorable variations in their beaks will be passed down. Another reason was because there were more variations in the beaks depending what the finches ate so he could study a variety of beaks.

Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is a theory that is and has been widely accepted for many years. The reason for this widespread acceptance is the many strengths that Darwin’s theory has. However, even though this is true, Darwin's theory has a few weaknesses. Darwin, although close, did not paint a full realistic picture of evolution with his theory.