is Correct?Creation, Evolution and Intervention: Which Theory is Correct?For: Mrs.
Talbot bbClass: Socioledgy88Date Due: Oct. 9/96By: Neel Ghelani89For many years, it has been widely debated how modern man came about. In thisessay, 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 thatI believe it.
EvolutionEvolution, in biology, is the complex process by which organisms whichoriginated on earth change because of changes in their environment and theirfunction on earth. The earliest fossils ever discovered are from single celledorganisms which resemble today’s bacteria. People who believe in evolutionbelieve that for approximately 3. 4 billion years these single celled organismshave changed and evolved into many different species including humans. Thistheory also states that humans and other species continue to evolve today andas a result of all these changes they will eventually become a totally differentspecies then what they are now. Evolutionists believe that evolution has createdmany organisms spread across the globe, some of which have become extinct andsome of which are the plants and animals which live today.
The theory that groups of organisms can be transformed into different organismshas been suggested many times since the early 1800s, when scientists beganlooking for evidence that the evolution process took place. “The mostoutstanding evolutionists in the nineteenth century was Jean Baptist de Lamarck,who argued that the patterns of resemblance arose through modifications of acommon lineage-for example , that lions tigers and others all descendant from acat like ancestor. ” (Dickey p. 42) It had already been a widely accepted theorythat different animals adapt to different modes of life and environmentalconditions. Lamarck argued that physical and mental changes occurred from animaladaptations to different environments.
Once the animal changed, Lamarckbelieved 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 hisfamous book On The Origins of a Species by Means of Natural Selection. In thisbook, Darwin stated that, in the environment organisms who have better qualitiessuch as being faster or trail scenting are more fit to survive. Consequentlythey are able to take the vital ingredients required by unfit organisms such asliving space and food.
Eventually, they kill off the unfit and unadapted. Thistheory is best known as, survival of the fittest, and can be summarized in thefollowing statement. When environmental conditions change populations mustchange in order to be fit and thus survive. Understanding the evolutionary process depends a great deal upon theinterpretations of the fossil record, which many consider to be incompletebecause many fossils can not be found. For this reason, there are many differentviews about what the fossil record states.
One fact that puts doubt in theevolution theory is that when a fossil appears in the fossil record it does sovery abruptly, and then stays their for several years. The fossil usually doesnot show the gradual changes that take place in the evolution of species. Forthis reason, Jay Gould of Harvard university developed a “puncturedequilibrium” theory stating that the changes do occur rather quicker than somebelieve. Creation”The notion of creation is defined as the production of an existing thing outof no preexisting material”. (Dickey 237)In the bible and in other comparableancient literature, creation is a theme used to explain how human beings came toearth.
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 organizedeverything such as the stars and the day from night. In many ancient culturesthe 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 yearsago. The bible also stated this process took place in six days. It states thatman was created when god put two humans onto the earth, Adam and Eve. The biblesaid that from these two people came the entire worlds population today. Peoplewho believe the bible creation story word for word are called fundamentalists.
In the 1700s, James Usher disturbed many traditionalists with his theory thatthe earth was probably more then ten thousand years old. What disturbed thecreation theory even more was Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. This theorystates that living things are a product of less sophisticated species. Manyfundamentalists refuse to except this because it would mean that the bible waswrong, or because they didn’t want to accept the idea that we came from a lowerorder species.
They want to believe they want to believe that god created themand they did not come about as a freak of nature. Today, evolutionists believethat the creation story is greatly flawed, and the fundamentalists believe thatthe theory of evolution is greatly flawed. InterventionistsIn the middle of evolution and creation is Intervention. Interventionistsbelieve that evolution did take place and that human beings have always beenevolving as the theory of evolution states. Interventionists believe that, insome point in human development, something from somewhere in the universe,possibly a superior intelligence, another species or even space aliens, bredwith humans thus changing the ape like creatures into modern humans. One of themost famous interventionists was Alfred Russell Wallace who presented thistheory in the mid to late 1800s.
Interventionists believe that intervention most probably took place when themost intelligent life was only the Homo Erectuses, A less sophisticated mammalwho could walk upright. There are three major pieces of evidence forintervention: 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 ofhumans. “(Moses p. 17) This quote is straight out of a creation story many believeto state exactly how humans were created, this is why it is so compelling andmakes some people believe intervention must have taken place. Secondly the factthat the speed of gradual change caused by evolution greatly increased after theHomo Erectus. Interventionists believe that “the process of evolution is tooslow and gradual to account for such a rapid change.
“(Dickey pg. 92) Theybelieve that the changes increased because the Homo Erectus bred with adifferent organism giving its offspring half of its features through its genes. What I believeI believe that evolution did take place, because this is the only logicalexplanation to explain how fossils have been found in Asia and Africa ofcreatures that do not exist today. Many people contend that these fossils wereput in these places so God could test our faith, but it is my opinion that thesepeople want to believe something so badly that they have fooled themselves intobelieving this.
These people only say this because there is no other explanationfor fossils being where they are other then evolution did take place. Thesepeople want to believe that we are the supreme beings in the galaxy and not thatwe came from a unsophisticated monkey so they will do anything to proveevolution wrong. If god did exist with all the technology we have today wewould be able to scientifically prove it but he doesn’t so we can’t. We canthough prove scientifically how man was in fact created, through evolution andwe know this from fossils. I believe intervention took place at some point in the middle of the evolutionprocess, but not with creatures from other planets or even with god but with adifferent species from our own planet, who came about from evolution, possibly aNeanderthal and another smaller less sophisticated creature. I believe thisbecause Charles Darwin’s’ very believable theory stated that only the fitsurvive.
Neantherthals were extremely fit. They were twice as strong as theaverage human and had much bigger brains. Some people believe they becameextinct during the finale ice age, but they were smart so I believe they movedsouth to Africa and adapted to the climate. This could be done by humans andNeanderthals are considered twice as smart as us so they must have been able todo it.
Once they were in Africa they bred with smaller less sophisticatedanimals possibly monkeys and this created the modern human. This explains whythe speed of changes in the fossil record increased so dramatically around theHomo erectus stage in evolution. What has made me even more sure ofintervention is the quote from the bible saying “the sons of god bore childrento the daughter of humans” This quote is straight from a major creation storymany fundamentalists take very seriously. I don’t know how they can believe thatgod put man on earth when there only source for information about creation theyhave tells them intervention did take place.
ConclusionEvolution, creation and intervention all are valid theories of how humans cameinto existence. The question of which theory is correct is up to eachindividual to decide . I believe that evolution does occur and this createdmany species but I do not believe this created modern man. I believeintervention occurred and that two products of intervention bred together inorder to make the modern human. Bibliography1)Dickey, Norma H. Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia.
R. Donnelley and sons;Washington,19852)Moses. “Genesis” The Holy Bible. Thomas Benson; Nashville,19903)Skeoch, Alan. Focus on Society.
Merrill Publishing Company; Toronto,1988 Social Issues
