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Evolution-The story of Creation
Are human beings still undergoing evolution?
As years speed by, world population is seen to rise and is now shooting past the seven billion mark .Statistics indicate that there has been a steady increase in world population since the early 90s.The U.N department of economics reports the earliest actual world population figure to have been taken back in 1940. According to the United Nations world population report, population is growing at a rate estimated to be 1.1% annually (About 134 million annual births). New cities sprout and mankind advances in technology. This means that at one point in time, all places that are currently filled with people and enormous cities were empty plain lands with no civilization. So how did all this life we cherish today start?
The answer to this question has for generations been a subject of contention between biblical fundamentalists, science scholars and perpetrators of the evolutionist theory.
Everything that walks the earth proves beyond reasonable doubt that there is a creator or at least a supreme architectural mindset from which life was designed. When you take some time to examine the human body, you will appreciate the billion cells that are stuck together to form organs that work together in complex systems, designed with unspeakable detail and accuracy to make the human body a living entity that is fueled by oxygen, food, and water.
The sun shines bright up the sky. Its warmth brings life to all creatures of the earth; seasons come and go, from winter to summer. The earth and her sister planets rotate around the sun, the source of living energy for our solar system. The moon and the stars light up the dark sky of the night with amazing beauty; to remind mankind, that there is indeed life after dusk. The clever scientists study and observe with awe as the wonders of the universe unfold daily. They can occasionally make a few predictions about the seasons, but can do nothing to alter these overwhelming events because they are clearly beyond the human hand. They are rather controlled by some supper natural power, one beyond human understanding. A power that seems far beyond human reach, yet so near every living soul – one that creates a burning desire to worship.(its no coincidence that every society around the globe believe and worship some form of superior power). It is clear that we are in existence, by design through a purposeful process that brought forth the universe and planned the events that led to the natural process of evolution—the story of creation.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and darkness he called night. And the evening and morning were the first day.
And God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and morning were the second day.
And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so.
And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and god saw that it was good. And God said, let the Earth bring forth vegetation, plants yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
And the earth brought forth vegetation, and plants yielding seed after their kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind: and God saw that it was Good.
And evening and the morning were the third day…
Genesis chapter one ( king James version)
The story of evolution
Science has it that at the beginning of time, the universe was born when space opened up and was filled with an enormous explosion of energy as the energy from this explosion radiated out into space it cooled down and began to condense into matter. Within a fraction of a second, most of the initial energy had condensed into matter. After hundreds of thousands of years, as the universe continued to expand and cool down, these particles began to condense into atoms. Enormous clouds of atoms were drawn together by gravity. They spiraled in wards and were crushed together to form massive solid bodies of matter, the immense pressure and heat inside these bodies caused nuclear reactions, and they exploded with intense light and heat to become stars. The universe has continued to expand for over twelve billion years.
You will note that even science acknowledges the fact that the universe was ‘born’. In other words at one point in time the universe was none existent. It was just oblivion. And then suddenly space opened and there was an enormous explosion. How and why space opened for the explosion to occur at that particular point in time is still a subject of contention among the elite scientists of modern time. This further proves that there is more to the story of evolution than ordinary human minds can explain.
The bible in the book of peter says, “But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing. That one day is with the lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”(2peter 3:8) Science reveals that it took the universe hundreds of thousands of years to expand and cool down. This is no mistake. The creator took his time to perfect this masterpiece. What in his language were a few days is several million years on the human calendar.
The formation of the earth
Stars release enormous amounts of energy by converting lighter elements like hydrogen into heavier elements like carbon and iron. All the heavy elements in the universe were forged in the hearts of stars. Stars continue to burn for billions of years and then when they run out of nuclear fuel they often explode, scattering elements across space. Our solar system was formed out of the rubble left behind by nearby stars that exploded. This ruble was drawn together by gravity to form a huge spinning cloud of rocks and dust. At the center of this cloud the cosmic material was crushed together and exploded into life as a medium sized star, our sun.
As the remaining rubble continued to revolve around the sun it was drawn together by gravity. Huge pieces of rock collided and were fused together by heat to form the planets and their moons. Any material that was not absorbed by the planets was left to circle the sun as asteroids and comets. Our earth began as a mass of molten rock covered by a hard crusty outer layer. Movements and eruptions in the surface of the earth produced mountains and valley. As the surface of the earth cooled down, clouds of steam condensed and water fell from the sky to form rivers lakes and oceans.
As science attempts to explain how the earth came into existence, many meaningful arguments are brought forward as seen in the text above. Along the way, gravity is cited as one of the forces that played a major role in cohering the universe. The English dictionary defines gravity as the force that attracts a body towards the center of the earth. The question is did gravity exist before the birth of the universe and ultimately the earth? So that by chance it made a significant contribution to the formation of the universe after the explosion? Or was it one of the entities that occurred out of oblivion after the explosion. Did all these events occur by sheer luck, or was there purpose and Control? like the biblical story, The creator made the heaven and earth first. It is from these that all life was to commence.
The beginning of life
During the explosion, elements such as hydrogen, Nitrogen, and carbon resulted. Basic chemistry shows these elements to have the ability to bond together to form chemical compounds. under the right conditions, carbon can combine with the other common elements to form complex long chains of atoms known as organic compounds. During the early years, temperature as well as other conditions on the earth's surface provided favorable conditions for carbon to bond with other elements to form complex organic molecules which further reacted with one another to form even more complex long chain organic compounds. As clouds of steam condensed and fell as water from the sky these compounds were washed into the sea, where they continued to bond together on the sea floor.
Life began when one of these complex compounds began reacting with other molecules around it in an unusual way. it was able to attract all of the pieces it needed to assemble an identical copy of it self. The copy then split away and began to assemble its own new copies. This process of self replication continued. New molecules were formed that could survive longer or replicate faster than the parent. After millions of years and mutation, new and more complex molecules developed a protective layer through which chemicals needed for replication could still pass. The molecule was now safe from harmful reactions that often threatened its existence. With time the protective layer developed into what we understand to be the cell wall. safely enveloped with in the cell wall, the chemical reactions of life were able to evolve and become much more complex.
The evolution of mammals and human beings
There appears to be a big difference between species of mammals. They are all however variations of the same basic design, developed to adapt to different habitats. The basic skeletal set up is similar in many ways for example the bones of the human hand are arranged in a fashion similar to that of a whale’s flipper.
Over millions of years, the single cells transformed and developed the ability to dived and form organisms with cells whose chemical reactions were essential for the survival of the organism. Through years of evolution and differentiation, more complex organisms eventually developed and these included mammals.
Most mammals adapted to living on the ground, others on the other hand took to living in the trees because the trees were rich in fruit and insect for diet. As generations passed, natural selection took its course, genetic changes occurred because there was need for the tree dwellers to develop modifications to make them masters of their home. They needed fingers to grasp tree branches, flat faces with eyes at the front for better judgment of distance while leaping from one tree to another.
Over hundreds of years and probably out of curiosity, some of these ape like creatures moved from forests to explore the grass covered plains. As they lived on the plains and spent less time in the trees, natural selection favored those with longer legs. They needed to stand upright for a better view of the grounds ahead. And so over time, generations of these apes underwent genetic changes that would give them the desired features and traits to adapt to and conquer their new environment. They gradually learned how to use their hands for a variety of tasks such as gathering wood, using sticks and stones as weapons. Around one million years ago, they learned how to make and keep fires burning. They began cooking their meals, and found gestures of communication from which speech was later developed. The intelligent human being become master of all that came out of the long process of evolution.
The story of evolution explains how God created the universe. It expresses the biblical story of creation in a language that human minds can comprehend. There was no mistake or coincidence, and neither was it by magic. For God works in ways we can not see. The universe in which we live is a carefully planned piece of work that took time and precision to accomplish. There is no doubt that after this hard work, God and his heavenly assistants needed to rest on the seventh day. We were created in God’s image—hard working, intelligent, with sense of reason and the ability to co create so as to adapt and become masters of our environment. We can observe, understand and try to adapt to the universe. But we cannot by our humanly might, make any significant alterations to the purpose for which the universe exists.
Does Evolution still take place?
It certainly does. Evolution begins when there is an error during reproduction and the new cell is different from its parent. Mutant cells usually die and those that survive are many times disadvantaged by their mutation. On rare occasions however, a mutant cell performs better than the parent. The descendants of the mutant cell may then successfully compete against the rest of the population and eventually replace them or form a divergent group altogether. The more often an organism mutates the faster it evolves and the faster it can adapt to changing conditions and the more likely it will be to successfully compete against other variations. This is what happens in organisms such as the HIV virus that causes AIDs. It is through this process of evolution that pathogenic organisms become resistant to drugs.
The story of creation as written in the book of Genesis represents the true origins of life. It is unlikely that God created organisms in their complete form as they are in modern day. Rather it is possible that he created organisms that had the ability to develop over time and effectively fit in their environment. This is the reason why living organisms are made up of cells that have the ability to divide and reproduce. It is this ability of cell division that allows the body to heal from ailments, and also allows continuity of species through reproduction. It is therefore my opinion that the scientific story of evolution is a detailed interpretation of the complex story of creation