Evolution

Since this site seems to be somewhat lacking in articles on this, I felt the need to clear a few things up. I'm going to ask you to sit through all of this, and not to comment after skim-reading, no matter how vehemently you disagree with the theory nor how strongly you feel your faith in any particular religion contradicts it.

Because that's is all evolution is- it's a theory. It’s not witchcraft or the work of the devil, it's just what several Victorian biologists noticed was happening over long periods of time. Studying fossils demonstrated that something was making the species change slightly over time, little differences like bigger shells or exoskeletons.

Charles Darwin gave the name to the process that caused evolution- natural selection. Which in itself is a pretty simple concept that people seem not to understand. Natural selection basically means that any features that don't aid in the survival of an animal, are dropped. "Survival of the Fittest" is the phrase that usually pops up here.

Life started off as bacteria. I know- you'd prefer the Adam-and-Eve story that we don't have relatives in the sea, no matter how distant that relation is. But according to most evolutionary biologists, palaeontologists and your average atheist, that's the truth.

I'm not debating the value of their opinions right now. I'm just saying, that's what evolutionary theory suggests. Several thousand million years ago, the earth was not the way it is today. It was a much more hostile and harsh environment. So the simplest organisms were the strongest. Water-based protein strings- what we'd know as bacteria.

Then, when the world got slightly less inhospitable, some bacteria began to alter their structure and form. They became slightly bigger, slightly more complex, perhaps even slightly sentient. Like worms. Which would reproduce by splitting down the middle to create another separate being- a process called mitosis.

But now they were in competition- to have the most space to roam and nutrients to ingest. So they 'upgraded' themselves. They grew fins and backbones to help them swim, eyes to see, teeth to defend and attack and eat. Lo and behold, we have fish.

Then the earth outside became even more inviting- with plants on the surface behaving in much the same way as the creatures in the waters- growing from bacteria into mould and from there into the lush green leaves to soak up the sunlight.

The fish grew legs to explore this new territory. And the increased space made them grow huge and vicious. The dinosaurs finally entered our story.

And for millions of years, they ruled the earth and the oceans. Until a meteor hit the earth 65 Million years ago, making the conditions so unbearable so quickly that neither animals no plants had time to adapt to this new environment. This event also killed off so many of the populations of both flora (plants) and fauna (animals) that they died out.

This event is known as a Genetic Bottleneck- where the population was once large and is rapidly reduced to a small proportion of the original (more than 50% killed or prevented from reproducing), much like the shape of a bottle becomes smaller near the neck.

But a few animals survived. And enough plants survived that- although the atmosphere was polluted- animals could still survive further. Most of these were the remaining dinosaurs' last shots at life. Crocodiles and chickens are the longest surviving dinosaurs- and they are still with us to this day.

I feel that going through the whole history of "what evolved next" would be tedious and pointless, so I'm simply going to deal with one ignorant question that seemed to scream at me when I saw it.

"If we came from monkeys then how come monkeys are still here?"
Simple- their form doesn't hinder their survival. In other words, the way they're currently shaped still works. That's the equivalent of asking why your grandparents are still here when they lead healthy lives and keep active. Albeit it's a lot less offensive to say it about monkeys since they don't understand human languages.

Or, put another way, it's like saying 'If my ancestors are English, then how come we still have the English?'

In other words, that sentence just shows how ignorant of evolution some people really are. It was not every single individual in a species that changed. Mutants would happen first- and I'll give you a human example.

We are taller than we were in the middle ages. Know why? Because we aren't all bent over fields doing back-breaking work. Go to any medieval town with a castle or similarly aged building and compare the doorways to the size of a normal doorway in your house. Chances are, if you're more than 5'9", you'll have to duck to get through.

In medieval times, you would've been considered a real-life giant. A genuine freak of nature (since that's where that phrase comes from).

Ever seen Evolution? The comedy film with a three-eyed smiley face as the logo? Or how about the X-Men films, with their discussion of evolutionary mutation in a modern-day setting?

They all talk of evolutionary themes- mitosis, mutation (which is the first stage in the development of a new species)- which proves that it's not a difficult theory to understand if Hollywood can make comedy films and sci-fi films out of exaggerated depictions of it.

This isn't a question of God's word verses Science. What I'm trying to put forward in this article is that maybe even the most devoutly religious people can stop to at least hear the theory without making brash comments about it after just a few sentences.

I've seen this happen so many times- both online and in my old science classes for GCSE (I go to an all-girls' Church of England secondary school). Just attempting to describe the theories of Big Bang and Evolution seem so offensive that even the mention of them without criticising them is blasphemy.

Now that you've read all of this, can you still say that it doesn't make sense? If so, then I have failed to fulfill my purpose with this article.