(December 19, 2014 at 10:35 pm)MissR Wrote: Isn't the Big Bang Theory different than evolution? I am open to learning of new ways that we are therefore existing. But I threw the god theory out the window, too.The two are completely different. The term "big bang" is a reference to what physicists believe was the initial expansion that created the universe. Initially used to mock the idea, it has since become the common reference to it.
Abiogenesis refers to the origins of life, and (this is my understanding) to date there seems to be bits and pieces of data that cannot be fit into a coherent whole yet. Due to the lack of both the exact conditions and the necessary time scales, we may never figure it out.
Evolution refers to two things: the process by which changes in the genetic code of living things effect changes to their offspring/descendants, and how this process has led to the diversity of life on the planet. The first is a fact; it is an observed phenomena that is well understood by scientists and researchers, seeing as it forms the basis of genetics and plays a huge part in biology and medicine. The second is a theory that explains the ways in which the process produced all of the different life forms, by tracing their lineage and finding the links between them.
The theory of evolution is subject to modification and revision, but at this point the idea of simply dismissing it would make no sense, as it has clear support through many discoveries and testing.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould