Few questions have the ability to polarize opinion as much as the debate on whether creation and evolution coexist. The passionate fervor with which people defend their views on the topic is, in a disturbing number of cases, inversely proportional to their level of knowledge on either one, or both, subjects. Creationists wave the Book of Genesis while evolutionists quote Darwin, both sides behaving as if the argument began and ended with the publication of those two sources.
Frequently, the debate is used as a weapon with which to beat the opposition. Creationists demonize scientists while atheists ridicule Christians. If both sides would take the time to examine all of the available information about both sides of the debate, they would find that there is more to unite them than there is to divide them. They would also realize that, rather than a simple yes or no question, the true answer is that both are possible.
At the heart of the issue is whether or not there even is a Creator. Whatever Charles Darwin may or may not have learned while he was cataloging specimens of birds and beetles, if there is no Creator, that is, no God, then evolution wins by default.
What is more difficult to understand is why Creationists think it is so important to shoot down the theory of evolution as if Charles Darwin were Satan himself. If the story of evolution began and ended with the statement that Man is descended from the Apes, then it would be easy to see why they have a problem with it. Survival of the fittest is also a difficult concept to swallow if you have been taught that we should love one another and care for those less able to care for themselves.
There is no reason why pro-creationists should demonize all of science for the sake of one area in which they disagree. Where are their protests when their doctor is prescribing medication, or when they use a cell phone. Those are scientific inventions. All scientists are not atheists.
Darwin's ideas were published in 1859. That was more than 150 years ago. In the intervening years, reams of scientific evidence from different disciplines has accumulated in support of natural selection. It's not just about fossils. It's about minute changes caused by mutations that enable an organism to better survive in a new environment. They live to reproduce and the trait remains in the gene pool. Organisms of the same species become geographically isolated and then reproductively isolated so that new species' emerge.
At the reductionist level, every cell contains DNA. DNA holds the code to the sequences of all the proteins in every living cell on earth. Proteins can either be enzymes, catalyzing biochemical reactions, structural proteins maintaining the integrity of the cell or DNA regulatory proteins, helping to determine which proteins get manufactured in which cell at which time.
This example may help explain why there is more to evolution than monkeys. Vitamin D, essential for human health, is produced in the body on exposure to sunlight. Too much Vitamin D is harmful. Equatorial races exposed to strong sunlight have, over millennia, developed darker skin as a result of enhanced melanin production. Melanin is the name of the brown pigment in skin. This prevents the absorption of too much sunlight and hence too much Vitamin D production. Conversely, people living at the poles and Scandinavia have paler skin, which lets in more sunlight and hence more Vitamin D. That is just one finely tuned process. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that creation and evolution coexist.
Frequently, the debate is used as a weapon with which to beat the opposition. Creationists demonize scientists while atheists ridicule Christians. If both sides would take the time to examine all of the available information about both sides of the debate, they would find that there is more to unite them than there is to divide them. They would also realize that, rather than a simple yes or no question, the true answer is that both are possible.
At the heart of the issue is whether or not there even is a Creator. Whatever Charles Darwin may or may not have learned while he was cataloging specimens of birds and beetles, if there is no Creator, that is, no God, then evolution wins by default.
What is more difficult to understand is why Creationists think it is so important to shoot down the theory of evolution as if Charles Darwin were Satan himself. If the story of evolution began and ended with the statement that Man is descended from the Apes, then it would be easy to see why they have a problem with it. Survival of the fittest is also a difficult concept to swallow if you have been taught that we should love one another and care for those less able to care for themselves.
There is no reason why pro-creationists should demonize all of science for the sake of one area in which they disagree. Where are their protests when their doctor is prescribing medication, or when they use a cell phone. Those are scientific inventions. All scientists are not atheists.
Darwin's ideas were published in 1859. That was more than 150 years ago. In the intervening years, reams of scientific evidence from different disciplines has accumulated in support of natural selection. It's not just about fossils. It's about minute changes caused by mutations that enable an organism to better survive in a new environment. They live to reproduce and the trait remains in the gene pool. Organisms of the same species become geographically isolated and then reproductively isolated so that new species' emerge.
At the reductionist level, every cell contains DNA. DNA holds the code to the sequences of all the proteins in every living cell on earth. Proteins can either be enzymes, catalyzing biochemical reactions, structural proteins maintaining the integrity of the cell or DNA regulatory proteins, helping to determine which proteins get manufactured in which cell at which time.
This example may help explain why there is more to evolution than monkeys. Vitamin D, essential for human health, is produced in the body on exposure to sunlight. Too much Vitamin D is harmful. Equatorial races exposed to strong sunlight have, over millennia, developed darker skin as a result of enhanced melanin production. Melanin is the name of the brown pigment in skin. This prevents the absorption of too much sunlight and hence too much Vitamin D production. Conversely, people living at the poles and Scandinavia have paler skin, which lets in more sunlight and hence more Vitamin D. That is just one finely tuned process. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that creation and evolution coexist.
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