Essay/Term paper: Creation, evolution and intervention: which theory is correct?

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Humanities Essays

Creation, Evolution and Intervention: Which Theory is Correct?


For: Mrs. Talbot bb
Class: Socioledgy88
Date Due: Oct. 9/96
By: Neel Ghelani89

For many years, it has been widely debated how modern man came about. In this
essay, I will explain the ideas of the three main theories: Evolution, Creation,
and Intervention. I will also discuss which theory I believe and why it is that
I believe it.

Evolution

Evolution, in biology, is the complex process by which organisms which
originated on earth change because of changes in their environment and their
function on earth. The earliest fossils ever discovered are from single celled
organisms which resemble today's bacteria. People who believe in evolution
believe that for approximately 3.4 billion years these single celled organisms
have changed and evolved into many different species including humans. This
theory also states that humans and other species continue to evolve today and
as a result of all these changes they will eventually become a totally different
species then what they are now. Evolutionists believe that evolution has created
many organisms spread across the globe, some of which have become extinct and
some of which are the plants and animals which live today.

The theory that groups of organisms can be transformed into different organisms
has been suggested many times since the early 1800s, when scientists began
looking for evidence that the evolution process took place. "The most
outstanding evolutionists in the nineteenth century was Jean Baptist de Lamarck,
who argued that the patterns of resemblance arose through modifications of a
common lineage-for example , that lions tigers and others all descendant from a
cat like ancestor." (Dickey p.42) It had already been a widely accepted theory
that different animals adapt to different modes of life and environmental
conditions. Lamarck argued that physical and mental changes occurred from animal
adaptations to different environments. Once the animal changed, Lamarck
believed that the changes would be passed on to the offspring through genes.
Unfortunately this theory was never really scientifically tested.

Charles Darwin successfully explained the evolutionary process , with his
famous book On The Origins of a Species by Means of Natural Selection. In this
book, Darwin stated that, in the environment organisms who have better qualities
such as being faster or trail scenting are more fit to survive. Consequently
they are able to take the vital ingredients required by unfit organisms such as
living space and food. Eventually, they kill off the unfit and unadapted. This
theory is best known as, survival of the fittest, and can be summarized in the
following statement. When environmental conditions change populations must
change in order to be fit and thus survive.

Understanding the evolutionary process depends a great deal upon the
interpretations of the fossil record, which many consider to be incomplete
because many fossils can not be found. For this reason, there are many different
views about what the fossil record states. One fact that puts doubt in the
evolution theory is that when a fossil appears in the fossil record it does so
very abruptly, and then stays their for several years. The fossil usually does
not show the gradual changes that take place in the evolution of species. For
this reason, Jay Gould of Harvard university developed a "punctured
equilibrium" theory stating that the changes do occur rather quicker than some
believe.

Creation

"The notion of creation is defined as the production of an existing thing out
of no preexisting material".(Dickey 237) In the bible and in other comparable
ancient literature, creation is a theme used to explain how human beings came to
earth. In the bible and most other creation stories from ancient religions,
the universe is said to be a great mess in which order was introduced by a God.
In the bible, it states that the creator cleaned up the world and organized
everything such as the stars and the day from night. In many ancient cultures
the stories tend to be similar and differ only in terms of places and figures.

Other ideas of creation include myths of emergence. According to the bible,
earth, all of its species and the universe were created less then 10 000 years
ago. The bible also stated this process took place in six days. It states that
man was created when god put two humans onto the earth, Adam and Eve. The bible
said that from these two people came the entire worlds population today. People
who believe the bible creation story word for word are called fundamentalists.


In the 1700s, James Usher disturbed many traditionalists with his theory that
the earth was probably more then ten thousand years old. What disturbed the
creation theory even more was Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. This theory
states that living things are a product of less sophisticated species. Many
fundamentalists refuse to except this because it would mean that the bible was
wrong, or because they didn't want to accept the idea that we came from a lower
order species. They want to believe they want to believe that god created them
and they did not come about as a freak of nature. Today, evolutionists believe
that the creation story is greatly flawed, and the fundamentalists believe that
the theory of evolution is greatly flawed.

Interventionists

In the middle of evolution and creation is Intervention. Interventionists
believe that evolution did take place and that human beings have always been
evolving as the theory of evolution states. Interventionists believe that, in
some point in human development, something from somewhere in the universe,
possibly a superior intelligence, another species or even space aliens, bred
with humans thus changing the ape like creatures into modern humans. One of the
most famous interventionists was Alfred Russell Wallace who presented this
theory in the mid to late 1800s.

Interventionists believe that intervention most probably took place when the
most intelligent life was only the Homo Erectuses, A less sophisticated mammal
who could walk upright. There are three major pieces of evidence for
intervention: the first is the quote from the bible discussing intervention:
"When the sons of god came down to earth and bore children to the daughters of
humans."(Moses p.17) This quote is straight out of a creation story many believe
to state exactly how humans were created, this is why it is so compelling and
makes some people believe intervention must have taken place. Secondly the fact
that the speed of gradual change caused by evolution greatly increased after the
Homo Erectus. Interventionists believe that "the process of evolution is too
slow and gradual to account for such a rapid change."(Dickey pg.92) They
believe that the changes increased because the Homo Erectus bred with a
different organism giving its offspring half of its features through its genes.


What I believe

I believe that evolution did take place, because this is the only logical
explanation to explain how fossils have been found in Asia and Africa of
creatures that do not exist today. Many people contend that these fossils were
put in these places so God could test our faith, but it is my opinion that these
people want to believe something so badly that they have fooled themselves into
believing this. These people only say this because there is no other explanation
for fossils being where they are other then evolution did take place. These
people want to believe that we are the supreme beings in the galaxy and not that
we came from a unsophisticated monkey so they will do anything to prove
evolution wrong. If god did exist with all the technology we have today we
would be able to scientifically prove it but he doesn't so we can't. We can
though prove scientifically how man was in fact created, through evolution and
we know this from fossils.

I believe intervention took place at some point in the middle of the evolution
process, but not with creatures from other planets or even with god but with a
different species from our own planet, who came about from evolution, possibly a
Neanderthal and another smaller less sophisticated creature. I believe this
because Charles Darwin's' very believable theory stated that only the fit
survive. Neantherthals were extremely fit. They were twice as strong as the
average human and had much bigger brains. Some people believe they became
extinct during the finale ice age, but they were smart so I believe they moved
south to Africa and adapted to the climate. This could be done by humans and
Neanderthals are considered twice as smart as us so they must have been able to
do it. Once they were in Africa they bred with smaller less sophisticated
animals possibly monkeys and this created the modern human. This explains why
the speed of changes in the fossil record increased so dramatically around the
Homo erectus stage in evolution. What has made me even more sure of
intervention is the quote from the bible saying "the sons of god bore children
to the daughter of humans" This quote is straight from a major creation story
many fundamentalists take very seriously. I don't know how they can believe that
god put man on earth when there only source for information about creation they
have tells them intervention did take place.

Conclusion

Evolution, creation and intervention all are valid theories of how humans came
into existence. The question of which theory is correct is up to each
individual to decide . I believe that evolution does occur and this created
many species but I do not believe this created modern man. I believe
intervention occurred and that two products of intervention bred together in
order to make the modern human.

Bibliography

1)Dickey, Norma H. Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. R. Donnelley and sons;
Washington,1985

2)Moses. "Genesis" The Holy Bible. Thomas Benson; Nashville,1990

3)Skeoch, Alan. Focus on Society. Merrill Publishing Company; Toronto,1988