Charles Darwin wrote one of the greatest scientific texts of all time. It was called “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”.
To the educated and unrestrained the arguments for natural selection are so perfectly clear, obvious and beautiful that the supernatural mumbo jumbo in the Bible pales into insignificance by comparison.
Let me explain evolution for the ignorant.
Do kids look like a mixture of their parents usually? I think we can agree they do. This is called inheritance, we inherit features from our parents (we share a combination of their genes). Are there, however, some noticeable differences from time to time (a child is taller than both his parents, say).
Can we agree the same is true for animals? I hope so.
So let’s journey back 20 million years or so to the African plains.
Imagine a creature like an antelope that grazes from the leaves of trees. Now imagine that there is an abundance of these creatures and food is at a premium. The offspring of some of these antelope are slightly taller than their parents. They are able to reach food that no others of their species can. Are they more or less likely to survive to reproduce if they have more food available to them? I think all can agree they are more likely to survive and reproduce. Are their offspring then likely to be tall like they are? On average I think we can agree they are.
Now repeat this process 40 million times for 40 million generations. How tall could the animals get? As tall as trees? How tall are giraffes? If it took giraffes a thousand years to gain an average 1mm of height (not a huge amount you must agree) then in a million years they could grow by a whole meter!
In geographical terms a million years is nothing; is it possible that no fossils of giraffes were laid down in this time? Yes, because fossils require an incredible set of coincidences to be laid down at all. So what do we have? A species which seems to have sprung from nowhere, invented apparently by some holy ghost or other supernatural spook. Or something that changed slowly over a vast amount of time. It really is a no brainer folks.
Related posts:
The Debate on Evolution the Theory of Evolution why Theory Matters Darwin and Society
Legacy of Evolution Legacy of Darwins Theory Darwin Changed History Social Effects of Evolution
Darwins Theory of Perpetual Change Charles Darwin Evolution Creation Genealogy Ancestry Genes
Charles Darwins Theory of Evolution and its Legacy