the evolution of the world
Uploaded by beaver9d9 on May 20, 2004
Since the early 1800’s people have been trying to figure out the natural world. In the beginning we thought that creationism was the explanation for everything. This was the idea that a higher power had a hand in the origin of the universe, the earth, and all of its beings. Scientific creationism is a belief in six ideas. First the universe, and everything in it were created by a higher power using supernatural processes. Second these creations took place simultaneously around ten thousand years ago. Third the universe today is virtually unchanged since its creation. Fourth living forms may undergo limited change within “kinds” of organisms, but no “kinds” give rise to other “kinds”; they were all created separately. In other words, there has been no evolution of any species. Fifth the data from the geological and fossil records documents events which have taken place over about ten thousand years. How so much change could have occurred over such a short period of time is accounted for by the claim that those records are largely the results of a single major world wide catastrophe. We know this belief as Noah’s flood. Sixth there is scientific evidence in support of their model, and at the same time there are serious scientific problems with the model proposed by standard evolutionary science. Evolution is sometimes said to be not a “fact” but just a “theory.” (Gould 58) When these ideas are subject to the stringent methodology of science, not one shred of evidence can be found to support the second, third, fourth, or fifth idea of the scientific-creation model. The first idea is not scientific at all, since it can not be tested, or disproved. Making the ideas proposed by the scientific creationists not scientific, instead it is pseudoscientific. (Gould 58)
Some of the most important early concepts which have lead us to where we are today, are the concepts of deep time, catastrophism, uniformitarianism, evolution, and natural selection. The first published and widely accepted date of creation was published by Bishop Ussher in 1650. His belief was that 2004 BC was the date of creation (class notes). This was proved to have been false by James Hutton in his 1795 book Theory of the Earth. Hutton’s idea of deep time (The theory that the...