Science And The Bible - Introduction

[lukec]

Ok, great. So we all agree that evolution, the change of organisms throughout time, will be the subject of this thread? Perhaps for the sake of the argument we can just agree that somehow, somewhere on earth, life started, and again for the sake of the argument we have to agree that it was around 4 billion years ago. Without this assumption of sufficient time, we cannot possibly reasonably discuss evolution.

Next, Daystar, I was actually hoping you could start asking some of the questions you have now- perhaps you could outline exactly which points of the theory of evolution you disagree with? What exactly doesn't make sense to you. This way you can ask questions like you talked about somewhere else, and saves the trouble of outlining the entirety of the theory of evolution and natural selection.

However, I'd also like to post this quote, since I think it sums up the idea of Natural Selection quite nicely:

Summary of Darwin's Theory of Evolution


• A species is a population of organisms that interbreeds and has fertile offspring.

• Living organisms have descended with modifications from species that lived before them.

• Natural selection explains how this evolution has happened:

— More organisms are produced than can survive because of limited resources.
— Organisms struggle for the necessities of life; there is competition for resources.
— Individuals within a population vary in their traits; some of these traits are heritable -- passed on to offspring.
— Some variants are better adapted to survive and reproduce under local conditions than others.
— Better-adapted individuals (the "fit enough") are more likely to survive and reproduce, thereby passing on copies of their genes to the next generation.
— Species whose individuals are best adapted survive; others become extinct.

-Taken from this site.