Summary Statements - 14 of X - Evolution from a Scientific Perspective
Extended quote from “The Creationist Movement in Modern America” (Eve/Harrold) on the definition of evolution from a scientific perspective (pgs. 44-45). This approach is typical of mainstream science and is what likely would be taught in public schools & colleges should your children go to them:
“The Scientific Consensus: Although scientists disagree on various points, they have a high degree of consensus in the natural sciences about the main features in the history of the earth and life. Long after the “Big Bang,” which began the universe as we know it over 15 billion years ago, the earth formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Sometime before 3.5 billion years ago, primitive forms of life appeared; several theories have been advanced about the origins of life under physical and chemical conditions that were very different from those on today's earth. These theories do not posit supernatural action by God; indeed, scientists widely agree that science is the study of the natural world knowable to us empirically (through the senses), and that therefore supernatural causes are outside its realm. All the panoply of subsequent life, both in the fossil record and around us today, is seen as descended from theses ancient beginnings. Through a process of evolution (descent with modification), the “family tree of life” has produced divergent form in populations of organisms. Genetic variation caused by random mutations is “edited” by natural selection, the main force driving evolution. (In this process, the organisms most successful in surviving and reproducing pass their traits disproportionately to subsequent generations.) We human are no exception to the evolutionary process; our branch of the primate family tree is estimated to have separated from the ancestors of African apes some 5-6 million years ago. Stone tools and evidence of primitive culture appeared over 2 million years in the past; and humans skeletally similar to modern people are dated to at least a hundred thousand years ago.
Scientists stress that this modern consensus is supported by a large and mutually reinforcing body of evidence, not only from geology, paleontology (the study of the fossil record), ecology, and archaeology, but also from modern biology (comparative anatomy and molecular genetics), physics and chemistry (dating methods based on radioactive decay processes), and even astronomy, with its measurements of objects billions of light-years away.
Creationism rejects this consensus. Some creationists throw it all out in favor of the account of creation in Genesis. Others accept some if it, but deny specifically that humanity arose by the process of organic evolution, or that any evolution could occur without direct supernatural intervention.”
Questions to be answered:
What is the evolutionary story of creation?
What is cosmological evolution? Geological evolution? Biological evolution?
Why did the geologists and biologist assume an old earth?
Where did the idea of an ancient earth (deep time) come from?
How does one reconcile chance with God?
Other questions ….
Next reading: 15 of X - Theistic Evolution & Critique
