Evolution. It is a scientific FACT. Not a ‘theory’.
A theory in the scientific world is a specialist term to mean a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. These are in no way just postulation or thoughts. These are substantiated facts. There is a theory of gravity, a theory of astronomical orbit. These are all pretty damn well established theories – ergo facts. Well, evolution is one of these theories, and as such needs to be understood.
All life started from a primordial soup, from which the basic elements of life combined under heat and electricity from lightning (i.e. Catalysts to increase the rate of reaction and chances of molecular encounter of these elements) that combined in the most entropically favourable forms of molecules – that is, the most energetically and chemically stable forms. These, amongst others, contained the aforementioned amino acids which are the building blocks of life. Some as simple as glycine – containing two carbon atoms, two oxygen atoms, one nitrogen atom and five hydrogen atoms, all the way to pyrrolysine containing nonlinear bonded-elements and 12 carbon atoms, three oxygen atoms, three nitrogen atoms and 21 hydrogen atoms.
This can be proven in a simple experiment, (first performed in 1952 by Stanley Miller, with assistance from Harold Urey, and then further ‘corrected’ to match the conditions of a prehistoric earth), by taking a flask filled with the molecules of the early earth (methane, water, ammonia and hydrogen), surrounding it in a steamy atmosphere of evaporated water in rather ‘warm’ conditions (again to match that of the early earth), and pumping electricity into the mixture of molecules to simulate the manifold lightning strikes that would have been rampant at the time, as well as some ultra-violet stimulation to simulate the lack of an ozone layer, allowing larger amounts of UV-rays from the sun to permeate and break bonds between those early molecules. What results is a beautiful mixture of around 20 amino acids,- and this is from one quick experiment lasting a few hours/days vs the millions of years available to the starting blocks of life back in the early 4 billion years of earth’s history.
These mostly match those amino acids found in our DNA, in our RNA, in our very skeleton of life. And now I will come onto my controversial opinion… This is totally incompatible with the view of any creationist-based religion, just as factually as the earth isn’t flat.
Creationist believe in the idea of a… Well. Creator. Be it the God of the Judeo-Christian-Islam accounts, the Gods of Greek creationist myths, etc, they all rely on an all-powerful (omnipotent) creator that was able to assemble the forms of life that we now see around us at a proverbial snap of his/her fingers. Well, poppycock. This is unevidential, unscientific and illogical. A creator of such great ability would have to be vastly, infinitely complex. Let’s take a step back. Our best theory of the creation of the universe (in the science world) is that of the Big Bang. A singularity of exceedingly high density and temperature that expanded through natural evolution into earliest forms of gravity and the earliest Plank epoch, to the formation of the elementary particles such as quarks, electrons, etc and then into baryons and the earliest forms of nuclei and then hydrogen, the first element.
Sure, there’s the question of infinite regression here, just as there is in the creationist myth – that is, what came before the Big Bang – or less equally, what came before God. I say this because, again, what seems more likely? A singularity that is extremely basic in physical principal coming into formation or a complex being/s of such infinite power and ability that they can form the very fabric of physical laws, matter, etc themselves? Logic will always dictate Occam’s razor. The simplest answer is usually the most likely answer.
Furthermore, the Judeo-Christian-Islam belief that the earth is between 6-10,000 years old goes against literally observable phenomena, such as we are able to find composite materials on the earth where the structure, through not just carbon-dating (that is often slated as false by the heretics, even though time and time again, in millions of experiments it is accurate within a few decades-centuries for the largest time scales), but also fossil records, observable models of evolution from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens sapiens, to show that the earth is 4.54 billion years old and that cosmic matter from other asteroids, meteorites, are found on this earth, completely contradicting the very foundations of these major religious beliefs.
Either you believe the evidence that is in front of you, in overwhelming form, or you cower in the belief of the supernatural,- with little to no evidence of anything.
People often argue that taking God and religion out of the world would lead to immorality and pointlessness, through perturbation and despair. But I counter that in full opposition. Religion has caused untold deaths and wars throughout history, and science has fought to bring logic and beauty to the universe. Our morality should be derived from respecting and loving our fellow living beings, and NOT because we fear of being punished.
That to me, is true morality.
