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In today's scientific paradigms, evolutionary theory is given great importance in its ability to explain the manner in which life itself evolves. What Darwin uncovered was a logical system of change within species, which could explain how all things evolved into what they are. He examined the manner in which random mutations within a life form could result in an improved ability to survive within a given environment. These random mutations would then produce offspring, which could similarly prosper based upon their advantageous change, eventually forming a chain of highly evolved, highly adaptable beings over a long period of time.

Darwin's initial understanding of evolution led others to refine his theory, allowing us to not only discover our possible pasts and that of all life, but also give us the ability to predict future changes within the system of life itself as links are developed and hypothesized along the scale of time e.g. our own evolution into our present homo-sapien form. While evolution is widely accepted as a plausible explanation for change/advancement in life, problems arise when one begins to examine the chain of events in a continuous chain backward in time.

Following the very basic functioning of evolutionary theory, we see that everything has a beginning - the point where it starts. A tree has a seed, a chicken an egg, etc. But each of these beginnings also had a cause - the seed to grow the tree came from a previous tree; the egg that hatches into a chicken was caused by a chicken before it laying the egg. If everything has a cause, and a cause before that, and before that, repeating infinitely, where and how is the theoretical, 'first cause' to be explained?

When examined at this level of cause and effect, evolutionary theory crumbles into a dubious mathematical definition of infinite chains continuously evolving over an infinite time-scale. This is where the notion of creationism, far from conflicting with evolutionary theory, in fact, compliments it. Creationism is centered upon explaining that theoretical, ‘first cause’ and examining how it has led to everything else. Ultimately, everything that has existed, exists now, and will exist, owes its existence to that first cause infinitely back up the chain. This first cause is impossible to conceive logically as in itself, it is inexplicably independent of the process of creation, yet we can perceive it as an idea. It has been attributed various aspects and even, ‘personality traits’ in our human attempt to understand it – God. In a sense then, we can say that God (the first cause) created everything. The process of evolution carries on the work of this conceptual moment in infinity.

This 'ultimate cause' can be accepted on many levels by the human intellect. Some, choosing to worship it, give it a personality, and establish a formal or informal set of 'rules' to govern their beliefs, usually based on an idea similar to 'in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' As the theoretical point is simply a cause, worshipping it has no actual relevance - it's just a way of accepting that it happened - giving meaning to man's existence. Other people choose to study its effects as far back as they can, e.g. scientists looking for the reason behind the Big Bang and what it lead to. Both these paradigms of science and religion are actually studying the same thing with a similar grasp of the inexplicable ‘first cause’ though petty disputes between the two result in a seeming difference in their understanding.

Creationism when broken down to this basic understanding can be seen as the essential building block by which the process of evolution is possible. Taking humans as an example, we see our religions reflecting the same beliefs as supported by evolutionary theory in stating that we are made in the image of God. When evolutionary chains are followed back into infinity, the incredible, indefinable point of first cause must exist from where we came, leading once more to the notion we have defined as God.

It is often argued that creationism and evolutionary theory cannot possibly exist in the same frame of thinking due to their conflicting paradigms; the one being religious in nature while the other representing a scientific viewpoint. However, setting aside the old quarrel between the two and examining the case objectively shows a very plausible integration between the two.