Friday, 5 October 2012

Why Creation And Evolution Coexist

By Juliette Cruz


Few subjects of discussion can stimulate a heated debate at a party as well as a discussion on whether or not creation and evolution coexist. The amount of emotion evoked by such a discussion bears an inverse relationship to the debater's level of knowledge. Evolutionists cite Darwin while the Creationists quote Genesis as if those two references were the be all and end all of human knowledge on the matter.

It seems as if both camps use the argument to beat each other up. If either side would stop casting smug looks long enough to listen to what the other had to say, they would realize they have more in common than they think. The truth is that the two ideologies need not be mutually exclusive.

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.

It's a laugh that Creationists tend to demonize all scientists. They could really show their commitment by not benefiting from scientific entities like medicine and laptop computers. Not all scientists are evolutionists and not all evolutionists are scientists.

Darwin's book, 'On the Origin of Species', was published in 1859, a century and a half ago. Since then, a wealth of evidence has been revealed in support of new species emerging by natural selection. Evolution does not say that men came from the apes. What evolution by natural selection does say is that organisms develop new traits that enable them to survive in new environments.

It all boils down to DNA, the genetic code resident in all living organisms from bacteria to baboons, from mice to elephants and everything in between. The chemical output of a stretch of DNA, a gene, is to provide the template for a protein. Proteins act as structural elements of the cell and as enzymes to catalyze all biological reactions from digestion to reproduction.

Vitamin D, essential for human life, is manufactured by the body as a result of the sun's rays interacting with the skin. Too much Vitamin D, however, is harmful. To regulate this, the human body has 'learned' how to tan itself. A pigment called melanin is synthesized in skin cells to keep block out the sun's rays to control the amount of Vitamin D that is made. That is just one example of the intricacy and balance involved in maintaining life. Both sides should consider the evidence that supports the idea that creation and evolution coexist.




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