Still No Apologies

Science Class: What is Evolution?

Note: I wrote this chapter back when I was a young earth creationist, but I still stand by what I said here.

This chapter is not exactly about apologetics, but I want to make something clear: If you want to have an opinion, you have to know what you're talking about. Especially if you are a Creationist. In this chapter, I will explain evolution simply and quickly.

Evolution happens in a population, NOT an individual. If a giraffe has to keep stretching its neck, the neck will not grow. Nor will a rat eventually turn into a human, given millions of years. That's ridiculous. Evolution changes the very DNA of a type of organism, and these changes are heritable (can be passed down to future generations).This is how evolution DOES work:There is a population of, say, relatively short-necked giraffes. Even though they all have short necks, the mutations in their DNA cause their necks to be at different lengths. This population of giraffes is forced to move to another part of the savanna. This area has very tall trees. The giraffes can barely reach the leaves to eat. However, there are some giraffes with longer necks that can eat more leaves than the others. These longer necked giraffes thrive better in this environment because there is less competition for the leaves. 

Eventually, the shorter-necked giraffes die, or become very weak from starvation. And/or, the longer-necked giraffes have more energy to reproduce successfully. This is called natural selection. Natural selection is the driving force behind evolution. It is where nature chooses which traits are desirable for a certain environment, or for living in general. The longer-necked giraffes can reproduce with each other, and pass down the long-necked gene(s). Over generations, the prevalence of the long-necked gene in the gene pool (the genes in a population) will increase, leading to most giraffes having long necks. So why won't the giraffe's necks become as tall as skyscrapers? Well, because that won't be helpful to the giraffe either, so giraffes with necks that are too long won't reproduce or survive as well.

The idea behind the theory of evolution is that a single-celled organism can evolve through mutations and natural selection, eventually evolving into a human. Please note again that it is not the individual that evolves. An amoeba did not wake up one day and randomly grow eyes. Mutations don't work like they do in the superhero movies. 😉

Any questions about evolution or anything else, just comment!