By Dr. Jonathan Isibor.
There are approximately two million species of both plants and animals on earth. Man is at the peak of these creatures. Man is scientifically classified as Homo sapiens (Latin: ‘Wise man’).
Created with a complex brain, he is equipped with the unique power of reasoning and so can think rationally.
Evolution (biological) entails a lot of factors. In some aspects, it refers to the theory that the first living organism developed from non-living matter.
Then, as it reproduced, it is said to have changed into different kinds of living things, producing ultimately all forms of life that have ever existed on earth including humans.
All of this is believed to have been accomplished without intelligent direction of supernatural intervention.
On the other side of the argument is the story of creation, which proposes that the appearing of living things can only be explained by the existence of an Almighty God who designed and made the universe and all the basic kinds of life upon the earth.
Obviously, there are profound differences between the Theory of evolution and the Genesis creation account.
Those who accept evolution contend that creation is not scientific. Some also ask whether evolution itself is truly scientific. And what about other questions that trouble so many minds; such as, whether or not there is an all – powerful Creator; why there are so many wars, famine and diseases that send millions to their early graves; why would God permit so much suffering on earth?
There are indeed many mysteries, many questions that challenge our minds’ capabilities. We may not be able to arrive at perfect answers even if we stay discussing this topic for the whole year, but we must start from somewhere.
Let us first look at the origin of life! Julian Huxley has described man as the ‘spearhead of the evolutionary process.’
We are told historically that life first arose on this planet some 3000 million years ago, that the first creatures that really resembled men appeared about 600,000 years ago and that the first real men appeared about 35,000 years ago, and that these drove out the earlier creatures. All this is part of history. The important thing is that man is the dominant species.
Ever since the beginning of recorded history man has speculated on the origin of life. In early times it was generally believed that organisms were generated spontaneously from non-living matter.
Thus the ancient Egyptians believed that snakes arose from mud, and the ancient Greeks believed that rats came from garbage.
Renaissance scientists knew better than this, but in the 17th and 18th Centuries it was widely believed that bacteria were spontaneously generated.
It was not until 1862 that Louis Pasteur disproved, once and for all, the theory of spontaneous generation (Abiogenesis).
Pasteur proved scientifically that all life came from pre-existing life, and all notions of spontaneous generation died a quiet death.
Let us now focus our attention on the theory of Evolution. The scientist whose name is most closely associated with this theory is Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882).
Ever since his Cambridge days Darwin had been a keen naturalist, devoting much of his time to collecting animals and plants.
But his real opportunity came in 1832 when he was offered a berth on HMS Beagle, a man-of-war which was to sail round the world on a map making survey.
The journey took nearly five years and the many stops, some of them several months long, gave Darwin an unparalleled opportunity to explore the flora and fauna in many different parts of the world.
He was particularly struck by the remarkable nature of the animals and plants on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
During his long voyage Darwin was forced further and further towards the conclusion that animals and plants have arisen by a process of slow and gradual change over successive generations, this being brought about by natural selection.
For twenty years after returning from his voyage Darwin consolidated his data and filled in the details of his theory, seeking support from other branches of biology.
In 1859, his book “On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection’’ was published. Nowadays most people take evolution for granted, but it should be remembered that the climate of opinion in the middle of the 19th Century far from favored the notion.
Although the idea had been in the air for some time, most people preferred to believe that animals and plants had arisen spontaneously by an act of special creation – each species being formed separately.
It had even been calculated by the ingenious Dr. Lightfoot, Vicar of the University Church at Cambridge, that the world was created at exactly 9.00am on 23 October 4004 BC. Darwin therefore found himself immediately at variance with the Church.
The debates that followed are now part of the annals of biology.
The most famous confrontation was between Thomas Henry Huxley and the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Samuel Wilberforce.
In a public debate the bishop asked Huxley if he traced his descent from an ape through his grandfather or grandmother, whereupon Huxley replied that he would rather be descended from an ape than from an intelligent being ‘who uses his gifts to discredit and crush humble seekers after truth’.
But despite these stormy beginnings Darwin’s theory has stood the test of time, and with minor modifications, is fully accepted today.
From the above discussion so far, we can highlight two major points in connection with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
First, Darwin supported his theory using many evidences. According to him, species have not remained unaltered through time, but have changed.
The second point is that Darwin put forward a plausible hypothesis explaining the mechanism of evolution.
As a naturalist Darwin was enormously impressed with the exquisite way animals and plants are adapted to their surroundings.
He explained this by postulating that individuals of species differ from each other in the degree to which they are suited to their environment.
The poorly adapted ones, argued Darwin, perish whereas the well adapted owns survive and hand on their beneficial characteristics to their offspring.
This is what is meant by natural selection, nature as it were selecting the ‘fit’ and rejecting the ‘unfit’. This can be expressed as the survival of the fittest.
In spite of mass evidence put forward by Darwin, this theory has provoked a lot of queries from several learned persons.
It is interesting to note, too, that even evolution’s best-known advocate, Charles Darwin, indicated an awareness of his theory’s limitations.
In his conclusion to the Origin of Species, he wrote of the grandeur of the “view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one, thus making it evident that the subject of origins was open to further examination.
The theory of evolution could not hold water for so many reasons which I cannot exhaust within the space of this article.
But essentially the theory of evolution could not explain the gaps between the major divisions of animal life – Evolutionary theory presumes that fish became amphibians, some amphibians became reptiles, from the reptiles came both mammals and birds and eventually some mammals became men.
Fossils are the remains of ancient forms of life preserved in the earth’s crust. These may be skeletons or parts of them such as bones, teeth or shells. A fossil also may be some trace of the activity of what was once alive, such as an imprint or trail.
Unfortunately, fossil records do not support the theory because the records have not been able to explain the numerous gaps between the major divisions of animals’ life.
Also the science of genetics has not been able to support fully the claim that the process of mutation has been responsible for evolution.
Even if all mutations were beneficial, could they produce anything new? No, they could not. A mutation could only result in a variation of a trait that is already there.
It provides variety, but never anything new. Mutation may change the color or texture of a person’s hair. But the hair will always be hair.
It will never turn unto feathers. Pigs remain pigs, orange trees remain orange trees and humans will always remain humans generation after generation. Does this not fit in appropriately to the Divine formula expressed in Genesis Chapter 1, that living things reproduce only “according to their kinds”?
The last part of this article would be published next week Monday.
Dr. Jonathan Isibor is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State of Nigeria. He can be reached at: joe_isibor@yahoo.com
