Darwin Theory
On the 24 th of November 1859, Charles Darwin published his famous work titled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, thus setting the basis for the development of evolutionary biology.
In this body of work, Darwin explains the theory of natural selection, which claims that all life on Earth evolved over successive generations. Of course, this postulation was not new; many ancient Greek philosophers, like Anaximander and Empedocles, had already speculated on the development of life through evolution, as well as the descent of man from animal. What Darwin did was to identify the mechanism which he termed ‘natural selection’. This means that if a member of a species develops a new characteristic then its offspring will inherit that characteristic, and if it this characteristic is favourable for survival then the members of that species which do not have that characteristic will gradually die out. Therefore, life ever evolves only towards something better.
However, advancements in science—specifically in biology, biochemistry and genetics—and the discovery and decoding of DNA in the last decade and a half, have cast doubt on Darwin’s theory as they have proven that some systems appear too complex to be a result of natural selection. This adds obscurity to the already notorious missing link in Darwin’s theory, which admits the difficulty in linking fossil records in a way that illustrates a gradual transition from one form of life to another. As more and more fossils are discovered, these gaps in the fossil records remain, causing most evolutionists to have withdrawn full support of Darwin’s theory more than twenty years ago.
An interesting article by Brian Thomas in 2011 titled “New Study Shows Enzymes Couldn't Evolve” shows that enzymes, which are highly engineered miniaturized machines, must have somehow purposefully been created instead of resulting from the random progression of chemical combinations.
In conclusion, there is not enough evidence to support Darwin’s theory as fact, and evolution is still under scientific scrutiny as it may now be understood to explain some evolutionary changes in life on Earth but not all of the creation. As a result of this lack of sequential evidence for the theory of evolution—and the discovery of the complexities of our DNA—more and more scientists are returning to the ‘God’ hypothesis of creation (and by God we mean an intelligent influence of some kind).
By John Black
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