People just don’t get Darwin

Did you know that evolution is a lie?  Did you know that all Darwin did was put a monkey skull onto a human skeleton as ‘proof’ for his ‘theory’?  Well neither did I.  Until my sister Heather (yes another post inspired by her) let me know this tidbit of ‘information’ which was passed onto her by a Jehovah’s Witness co-worker.  This unfortunately is not a one off crazy idea.  I’ve since heard this or something similar several times from people belonging to several denominations.

It’s been several months since I last heard about the Darwin monkey skull/human skeleton theory however and I haven’t really thought about.  But it came to mind again yesterday when I learned it was the 63rd anniversary of the Scopes monkey trial. Thinking about it again I realised how little people know about Darwin and the theory of evolution.  The common belief is that Darwin created the theory of evolution which explains the origin of life on earth and that man evolved from monkeys and that there is no God.  This irks me in a bad way for one simple reason.  The theory of evolution states none of those things.

Here are the actual facts.  Darwin did create the theory of evolution which states that higher forms of life develop out of lower forms of life through random mutation and natural selection.  Essentially when an animal is born with good characteristics it is more likely to survive and have offspring thus passing on those good characteristic.  When an animal born with bad or ‘less good’ characteristics they are then less likely to survive and pass on those characteristics.  Eventually the bad or ‘less good’ characteristics are eliminated from the species.  What does that say about the origin of life on earth?  It doesn’t say anything about it.  Evolution simply explains how life developed into the way we see it today and not how life began.  The origin of life is a completely separate theory called Abiogenesis which Darwin had nothing to do with.

As for man evolving from monkeys that is false as well.  Man shares a common ancestor with monkeys and didn’t come from them.  It’s easiest if you think about it like a family tree.  You and your cousin are related (like humans and monkeys) but you did not ‘come’ from your cousin (just like man didn’t ‘come’ from monkeys).  Rather you share a common ancestor in the form of your grandparents (just like humans and monkeys back in the Miocene period more than 20 million years ago link).  Darwin didn’t state anything about human development in his theory or his book “On the Origin of Species”.  Granted he was well aware of the implications (though they weren’t proven for many years) but since he never wrote or stated anything about monkeys and man we can put the lie to the idea that Darwin put a monkey skull on a human skeleton and claimed proof of his theory.

Lastly the theory of evolution doesn’t say anything about denying God.  In fact many modern religious people now believe in what is called Theistic Evolution.  Basically God used evolution to create life as it is today as part of his divine plan.   A religious friend of mine once said “God isn’t magic.  He uses nature to perform his will”.  So Darwin and evolution does not deny the existence of God.

Darwin, in fact, doesn’t even mention God in “The Origin of Species” or his theory of evolution.  But maybe that’s the problem.

~ by mantred on July 23, 2008.