The Theistic Interpretation of Evolution - Term Paper Example

Running Head: Evolution Evolution [Institute’s Evolution Since centuries, evolution has remained a significant issue in the human societies that continued to question people with the inquiries such as how humans get into this world, how humans came into existence, etc until today. In the result, a huge number of researchers, scholars, philosophers, etc have endeavored for many years to propose their explanations regarding such curiosity of humans. In specific, different theories exist in the case of evolution; however, theistic evolution is one of the theories that have been able to influence people. It indicates that the universe exists since more than ten billion years, whereas the crust is only four billion years old. Moreover, such explanation (Mayr, 2002) of the evolution has emphasized primarily the God, foremost and final cause of appearances of first organism in this world that is the cell. From this cause, there has been evolution involving millions of years that enabled the single cell to evolve and transform into a mammal, or more specifically, the humans. In this regard, the theistic interpretation of evolution has been a factual explanation of the human evolution while involving the role of supernatural dynamics in the form of God that commenced everything. On the other hand, there exists the theory of evolution by Darwin (Larson, 2004) that has been the most popular name in this area of study, and has been successful in influencing and convincing a huge number of world populations. Especially scientists that follow Darwin in the case of human evolution, and agree that all creatures in this world have come after evolving from organisms of one cell, and millions of years turned them into multiple-celled organisms. Another explanation of the human evolution exists in the story that points out the location of East Africa, a heavily forested region that was a home for primate inhabitants of varying kinds approximately ten million years ago. However, after five million years, the region began to experience radical climatic alterations that altered from wet to more dry and barren conditions, and subsequently, the forested region changed from wet jungle to a desolated land. Such alteration inclined the primates to change their habitat from tree to the land that brought together the most atrocious forces of marauders on the land area of the globe. Such stories then connect the different varieties of wild animals found in African forests these days. In addition, such transformation from tree dwelling to ground-inhabitants provided the opportunity of humans to evolve into civilized ones by benefiting from these predators roughly five million years ago. From these three theories (Bowler, 2004) discussed in brief, the theory of evolution of Darwin stands distinctively as the most popular, influential, and factual theories related to evolution. In the beginning, ‘descent with modification’ (Wood, 2005) was the original term for evolution in Charles Darwin’s explanation regarding the phenomenon. According to him, since centuries, life on the planet has altered and evolved, and it will continue to alter for many years to come. In addition, this theory relates all species existing in this planet as the successors of one common predecessor. However, as the time passed, and as the years went on, every class responded distinctively that resulted in the evolution involving tiny changes to even intellectual behaviors. In this regard, this process of evolution took millions of years to acquire the contemporary form of humans that are still in the process of evolution, and will be in different forms after several millions of years (Wood, 2005). In specific, Darwin proposed that all such changes were so distinct that it resulted in emergence of new species, humans. In such discussions of Darwin, the notion of natural selection became the major emphasis of his theory that indicated the non-random nature of natural selection while tiny alterations in the DNA were quite random in this case (Lewin, 2005). Moreover, he indicated that all such changes and mutations caused commencement of new changes in characteristics that resulted in the increment of reproduction process, and subsequently, increased the world population. However, these changes did not occur in one century, and it took many generations to take effect. In particular, some species that were well adaptable to the environment took approximately millennia to alter, whereas, the environment remained constant during this period according to Darwin. Moreover, the Darwin’s theory of evolution (Conklin, 2009) has indicated that in the coming years, there is less possibility of any radical alterations in the reproductive process if the environment will remain constant. However, in an altering environment, there will be rapid responses from the species that will alter the process quickly. It is observation that such process of alteration has been in continuance since millions of years, and transformations are indications of changing environment that allow the species to ensemble with the new environment. For instance, scientists (Conklin, 2009) believe that human species are again in the process of rapid transformations in their genetic structures due to changing environment, and humans will be in the different forms in few centuries due to alteration in the lifestyle of humans that will be bringing new species according to the new environment. According to the theory of evolution, genetic changes spread easily from population to population, and this is the reason that is enabling and facilitating HIV virus to evolve rapidly in the world, resulting in its quick spread throughout the world population. Besides natural selection, sexual selection is another driving force in the Darwin’s theory of evolution that has proposed the explanation of human evolution from another perspective. According to sexual selection, a number of characteristics allow male species to come in contact of female species, and display of such traits has been another cause of human evolution. Some of the basic characteristics are colors, physical display, IQ, etc. It is a fact that female species always favor the male mate with the most attractive characteristics, and such combination of impressive genes results in the transformation of DNA to the future generations that enable the new species to evolve, and come into existence while having the required impressive traits. In this regard, Darwin (Lewin, 2005) has argued that only natural selection cannot be the only factor of human evolution, and sexual selection is the influential factor in evolving species on this planet. For instance, beautiful and attractive tail of peacock has nothing to do with her natural selection and is not important for her survival; however, sexual selection is the factor that this characteristic of peacock has continued to exist until today since centuries. In addition to natural and sexual selections, genetic drift is another significant term that indicates an additional mechanism that explains the human evolution. In this mechanism, as time passes by, every population alters their genetic structure that is genetic drift. However, only populations in isolation experience genetic drift normally where the pool of genes is usually not adequate to bring changes in the population. Although Darwin’s theory of evolution is only the theoretical framework for understanding human evolution, however, it is observation that advancements in the subject of chemistry and biology have complemented Darwin’s explanation. For instance, chemistry has concluded that all organisms have the same basic structures of molecules and cells that match the theoretical explanations of Charles Darwin. It is belief that future advancements will continue to complement Darwin’s explanation in the future. Conclusively, the paper has discussed some of the significant aspects of human evolution. The paper has discussed and analyzed different explanations related to the phenomenon; however, it is anticipation that future researches in this regard will allow a more comprehensive and updated understanding of the impact. It is an expectation that the paper will be beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals in better understanding of the topic. References Bowler, P. J. (2003). Evolution. University of California Press. Conklin, E. G. (2009). The Direction of Human Evolution. BiblioBazaar. Larson, E. J. (2004). Evolution. Modern Library. Lewin, R. (2005). Human Evolution. Wiley Blackwell. Mayr, E. (2002). What Evolution is? Basic Books. Wood, B. A. (2005). Human Evolution. Oxford University Press. Read More