Before I taught the subject of Evolution, I always gave my students a chance to voice their ideas and opinions in a free-wheeling discussion. I ended this class with the reading of the Genesis account of creation. If you read it with a scientist's mind, from the void (a cloud of gas and dust), to night and day (rotation) to creatures moving from water to land and finally the creation of mankind, the sequence of events are eerily similar to the scientific explanation of creation.
How did the ancient writer know? Was he inspired? Did he have some "Higher Power" looking over his shoulder and giving advice. The whole idea makes me wonder about just who or what is "out there".
I have long been troubled by American's lack of understanding of Evolution. We could blame conservative Christians, but I believe scientists and the media in all of its forms are to blame for doing a terrible job of explaning what Evolution is and what it is not. Just about every year some polling outfit announces that 60% or 80% of the American public does not believe in Evolution. Yet these same people will visit the Smithsonian Institution or American Museum of Natural History and marvel at the exhibits of trilobites, dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, coal forming trees, etc. To get to these facilities they had to drive in a car fueled by gasoline derived from a fossil fuel called oil and view these creatures in rooms lit by electricity from coal (a fossil fuel) fired power plants. From space travel to the identifying our DNA signature in the Genome Project all science is tied to an understanding of the Earth, the Solar System and the Universe as ancient, dynamic, and ever changing.
The extremists who use the fear of Evolution to raise money and stir up politicians only succeed when people who know better sit and say nothing.
There is Evolution and there is evolution. Evolution (capital E) is Darwin's theory and was and is based on observations of present plants, animals and the ecoystems they exist in as well as a careful examination of the fossil record over the 3.8 billion years of life's existance on Earth. Only a tiny fraction of life on Earth has been preserved, so the idea that life evolved over billions of years must remain a theory because we can not "prove it" and it is constantly changing due to new discoveries in our genes or the fossil record.
Evolution (small case e) is an easily observed process that is constantly at work in our natural world. The process Darwin was trying to explain in his writings was that organisms change over time through a process of Natural Selection. Natural Selection can best be described as "Survival of the Fittest". In an ecosystem, if the climate gets colder, warmer or dryer; if a new predator enters the scene; if an invasive plant invades---those organisms best able to adjust to the new reality will be more successful than those that can not adapt. In any population of living things there are differences in size, shape, health, speed, etc, that become apparent when the species is faced with a crisis. Those individuals best suited to adjust to the changes will continue the species. The individuals unable to change or adapt simply die off and disappear. Extinction ocurrs when none of the members of a population can adapt and the group simply ceases to exist.
I use the following example---
A sow(mother pig) may have as many as 18 baby pigs. She usually only has 12 or 14 feeding stations, so it is first come, first served. There is one complication---the first time a little pig latches on to a milk gland, it's his or hers because it leaves a scent on it and will always return to the same spot. The obvious result is a real fight for the first feeding which will leave some of the piglets with no food or a limited amount. Now Mom weighs about 600 pounds and when she drinks or eats she stands up and walks around. When it is feeding time, she lets out a grunt, warning all around to scurry out of the way. Well "sorry junior" who has not eaten well, may be a little slow and does not hear the "bell" and is still sitting under the grande lady when she drops like a rock, will not survive the experience. Within a few days the best 12 or so little pigs will be doing well and the farmer will be happy. This process of Natural Selection has been going on since life began more than 3.8 Billion years ago and will continue as long as life exists on this planet.
Now about that "Higher Power out there". Stay tuned
