The Debate Between Darwinism and Creationism - Essay Example

? Creationism vs. Darwinism Generations have evolved since the birth of life on Earth billions of years ago. Theories of evolution have emerged ever since man started to think, read and write. What gave birth to complications in the process of defining the origins of the species was the controversial ideas of Charles Darwin, who claimed to have rewritten the history of life. God played little part in this evolutionary method of the creation species but rather it was a result of “a blind, mechanical process that altered them over the course of millions of years” according to Darwin (Marty, 2009). As opposed to this theory, which later came to be known as Darwinism, was the existing fundamental Christian belief that God has created all the species, each having its own distinctive features (Numbers, 1982). This paper attempts to define Darwinism and Creationism at length and view them in a larger spectrum for the purpose of clarity. Creationism vs. Darwinism Darwinism, which accompanied the loss of belief in the Creator, asserted that the evolution of life came to be from a single genus. Darwin studied the aspects of evolution through the fossil record, the birds and reptiles of the Galapagos Island, similarities in anatomy of diverse species, examining the hierarchy of the species and last but not the least, through studying the embryos. These evidences added up to be solid facts which convinced science of a possibility that what Darwin was proposing was true and weighty (Attfield, 2006). Being a naturalist by profession, Darwin had great knowledge about plants and animals. He believed that organisms evolved through the process of natural selection, whereby, more are produced than can stay alive, only those survive who are the fittest. Hence, he combined and moved on with theories of other biologists like Thomas Robert Malthus and William Paley. Darwin’s critics find a loophole in this concept of evolution because it does not mean transformation of a species into another but simply the survival of the fittest. Darwin, however, was convinced of his theory and was ready to work on it even if it lasted a life time. Surprisingly he gave birth to the idea of natural selection while preparing for his own wedding and was condemned by his Christian fiance to give up on such heretic thoughts (Marty, 2009). In 1860, in a meeting in Oxford, a heated debate arose whereby Henry Huxley, a supporter of Darwin and others who included the Bishop and some military men took part in the discussion. Darwin had little part to play in this since he was not in the meeting but eleven years later he shared his own views in The Descent of Man, his own book which had caused a stir amongst the religious circles. His view On the Origin of Species (1859) which is often searched for his standpoint on the question of ape, was only this; “Light will fall on the origin of man and his history” (Marty, 2009). Evolution came with various modules. There was a Theistic Evolution followed by Agnostic and Materialist Evolution. Each varied from the other because of different opinions and beliefs (Scott, 2004). Twenty years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, a crusade against this heretical doctrine came forward by the name of Creationism. Liberal churchmen and evangelical Christians had started embracing the evolution theory laid down by Darwin and his supporters. The creationists took upon themselves the task of outlawing the doctrines of evolution in the 1920’s. Presently, they continue with this battle in the name of religion. William Jennings Bryan, a Presbyterian layman, made a huge claim about eliminating Darwinism from its roots in public schools. This strengthened the purpose of other creationists and the success encouraged them to continue with their efforts. Bryan was extremely disappointed to learn that Darwinism was used as a tool by the German military to cause war. Both democracy and Christianity were deeply affected by this havoc. He saw the whole of United States collapsing in this disbelief and the spread of the disease was far more rapid than he could imagine. He was “convinced that the teaching of Evolution as a fact instead of a theory caused the students to lose faith in the Bible, first, in the story of creation, and later in other doctrines, which underlie the Christian religion”. In 1922, the same year in which Bryan started his crusade against the scientists who were the main cause of disturbance throughout the nation; William Bell Riley stated the most important reason for the fundamentalists to oppose the scientific notions of evolution as being just a hypothesis and not a science. Nobody questioned this fact. By 1935, however, after gaining minimal response from the printing press and the orthodox scientists, a small group of creationists started the Religion and Science Association under a Wheaton College professor, to combat the theory of evolution in a more systematic way. By late 1960’s the creationists managed to leave an impression and eventually a whole chapter on creation was introduced in the biology textbooks alongside evolution. This was an underground effort by the whole team which continues to establish Christian faith through opening up research cells with a dominant theme of Creationism functioning as a slogan against the theory of evolution (Numbers, 1982). Because of the on-going debate over creationism and evolution, people have started giving very narrow definition of evolution such as “man evolved from monkeys”. Evolution is a very broad term which is not restricted to just man or even living thing. It reflects the fact that universe has a history and over a period of billions of years various processes like geology and cosmology have also evolved. Creationism emerged because of a questioning of faith but it also came with a variety of sub-divisions (Scott, 2004). There was a Special Creationism with a unique class of Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and Old Earth Creationism (OEC). Special Creationism was about the belief that God created everything in six days. The variation came when scientists and scholars added their opinion about the systematic creation of every particle of a body. For some, there was a gap of several years after God created cells. Hence, the following list of OECs: 1. Gap Creationism 2. Day-Age Creationism 3. Progressive Creationism 4. Evolutionary Creationism 5. Intelligent Design Creationism The intelligent design creationism (IDC) overlaps both OEC and YEC. It is the recent form of creationism with references to all the previous creationism approaches. While this group accepts the natural selection, it also denies the hypothesis that mutation and natural selection may cause evolution from one species to another (Scott, 2004). It can be assessed that Darwin had a great distrust for Bible and it can be observed that he also had a passion for David Hume’s treatise against the supernatural. His main concern was to find ways to survive and the Christian miracles did not give him sufficient answers, especially after the death of his daughter. He called himself a creationist before he gave birth to the theory of evolution. After that he denied the existence of God in the creation of mankind and hence found no reason to follow any commandments. William Provine, a Cornell biologist understands Darwinism as believing “no life after death”. This gave rise to an atheistic notion of evolution. According to a philosopher, Daniel Dennett, Darwinism is “like universal acid” which “corrodes traditional spirituality” (Rhodes, 2004). At the arrival of creationist force, the initial impact was only seen in North America. The anti-evolutionist war was not going beyond this region. Towards the end of the century, the creationist scientists supported the academia and other circles to supersede the American boundary and became known internationally because of the circulation of textbooks (Numbers, 1998). Eventually a board of scientists was gathered to approve of creation science as a proper science. They were made to sign a declaration which stated: “I am skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” (Cornish-Bowden & Cardenas, 2007) In response to this declaration a pro-evolutionism science gathered scientists to sign the following: “Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological science, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a common ancestry. ... It is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including but not limited to “intelligent design”, to be introduced into the science curricula of our nation’s public schools.” (Cornish-Bowden & Cardenas, 2007) The debate between Darwinism and Creationism seems to continue to this date. The founders may have made claims based on the limited knowledge or even their sentiments during the mid-19th century. In any case, knowledge has definitely evolved since then, according to the level of intelligence of each generation. It is up to the body of science to make mature decisions on the basis of facts provided by religion and discoveries made by mankind, regarding evolution. Unfortunately, it is through science that politics and war are often played. What was revealed to Bryan about the distressful situation caused by the Germans compels the modern science to distinguish politics from science and research. References Attfield, R. (2006). Creation, evolution and meaning. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. Cornish-Bowden, A., & Ca?rdenas, M. L. (January 01, 2007). The threat from creationism to the rational teaching of biology. Biological Research, 40, 2, 113-22. Marty, Christoph (February 12, 2009). “Darwin on a Godless Creation: "It's like confessing to a murder".” Scientific American. Retrieved from: Numbers, R. L. (January 01, 1982). Creationism in 20th-century America. Science (new York, N.y.), 218, 4572, 538-44. Numbers, R. L. (1998). Darwinism comes to America. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Rhodes, R. (2004). The 10 things you should know about the creation vs. evolution debate. Eugene, Or: Harvest House. Scott, E. C. (2004). Evolution vs. creationism: An introduction. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Read More