The uncompleted mission left for us: Creationism vs. Evolution
High school, 10106
Class D, Hye Jin Kim

(Introduction)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day."

We have now reached the point where we can treat cancer and clone animals with no sweat. Most of our wonders have been answered by science and we benefit a lot from the advances in technology. Yet, the biggest wonder of all humankind still remains: how was the earth created? Did God create us or did we evolve from a common descendant?

Humans are by far the most interesting and amazing creature ever to exist on our planet. Our body is designed perfectly, artistically, and scientifically; and, the way it functions is indescribably well-structured. Thus, many people have tried to figure out where we originated from and there are mainly two main theories that have gained the most popularity-Creationism and Evolution. One cites that we are a work of God and another says that we have evolved from a common descendant.

(Intro to creationism)

Creationism is the oldest belief regarding the origin of life based on the Bible, thus widely believed by Christians, Muslims, and Jews who call themselves theists. The principle of creationism is that God created the world out of nothing, by an act of free will. There are mainly four beliefs that creationism entails: A short time since the beginning of everything (estimated to be 6000 years), six days of creation, a miraculous creation of all life, and a world wide flood after the initial creation (God punished the world and only a limited number of humans and animals survived).

(Theists' point)

Theists suggest six main reasons why the world can only be a work of God and why the creation cannot be explained by evolutionism. Here are some of the arguments theists made.

First, Evolution is no more than a theory and the beginning of life can only be explained by some first cause. Theists claim that even the scientists themselves, although they were the ones who came up with the idea of evolutionism, show that their idea is not built upon solid ground.

Evolution is based on the idea of probability. Evolutionists claim that all lives occurred unexpectedly by a process of spontaneous generation and it was an accident that betrayed the law of nature and made everything happen. Considering that science is dealing with cases that can be explained logically or by an experiment, how unscientific is it for scientists to claim something that can never be explained logically?

Dr. G.G Simpson, who is known to be one of the greatest in the field of evolution, stated that the beginning of everything can only be explained by the first cause and human can never understand the cause since it is beyond the reach of science. From his saying, we can define that there was a force that provided the basis and that it can be easily described by creationism, while evolutionism still struggles to answer.

Second, Darwin's natural selection is bogus. When Charles Darwin published the book called The Origin of Species, he explained the process of evolution by using the term 'natural selection'. Natural selection refers to a differential survival or reproduction of different genotypes in a population that leads to changes in the gene frequencies of a population. However, creationists point out that the term "natural selection"is indeed a tautology.

Natural selection can be interpreted to an easier phrase, 'survival of the fittest' But when creationists question who the fittest ones are, scientists answer, "Those who survive." It is for sure, not a truism. When saying something is fitter than others and that on average, one expects the fitter to succeed. However, what if there was an earthquake that could wipe out both the fit and unfit?

Third, Intermediate form does not exist. Evolution is mainly an idea that all lives evolved from a single, simple form of descendent. However, if it were true, the intermediate form which existed between the evolving periods should be found, but intermediate forms were not found and even the ones that scientists claim to be the evidence were proved to be unauthentic.

According to the Bible, God made the beasts of the earth after their kind and cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth after its kind. Therefore, once a cat has always been a cat, and every species exists in the forms they were initially made. There is no common descendant of monkeys and human beings and there exists no fossils to prove the intermediate form. This fact indicates that there is no such bond between human and monkey.

If creationists' claim was right, if there was a common descendant, there should be many fossils of intermediate forms and we should still be able to find the evolving creatures. However, fossils were not found and even the ones creationists call to be the intermediate form were proven to be lies and also, we cannot witness a monkey evolving to a human form.

(Intro to evolution)

Since the idea called creationism was so powerful, no one could question any other possibilities until 200 years ago when evidence began to surface that cast doubt on creation and scientists. It was as if they had been waiting for long time and had come up with their own ideas of the beginning. The idea that all lives have evolved from one single descendant or evolution has now gained the most popularity.

(Evolutionists' point)

Evolutionists have come up with several reasons why they believe that it was not God who created the world but that it was a single descendant that all creatures have evolved from. Here are some of the strongest points evolutionists suggest.

First, the geographic distribution of related species. There are about 250,000 species of living plants, 100,000 species of fungi, and one million species of animals described and found. Human live world-wide but other species live exclusively on their land since they can only grow and live in places where they have adapted to.

However, according to research, some exotic species which could only be found in a specific place were found in land that was once connected. For instance, the larvae of the fly Drosophila carcinophilia that can only survive in special grooves beneath the flaps of the third pair of oral appendages of a land crab that is found only on certain Caribbean Islands

Second, seeing doesn't always indicate truth. Creationists argue that no one has witnessed evolution occur. They say that if evolution was true, they should be able to see monkeys evolving to human beings. However, sometimes, we cannot define what is true and what is not by seeing with our own eyes. For example, the atoms or the earth going around the sun are not seen.

(Conclusion)

I was born and raised in a Christian family. I went to church before I even learnt to walk. Thus, my faith in God is stronger than anyone's. I strongly believe in every word in the Bible and my motto is to live life in the way which God has taught. Moreover, I can give the most enthusiastic speech when it comes to a debate on creationism. However, I arranged a chance to think on the opposite side. It is not that I have changed my opinion, but wanted to learn and know what non-Christians think so that I could prepare and be aware of how to answer when my non- Christian friend question me about the myths of origin

People say you have to learn to understand others if you want others to understand you. From this experience of researching both opinions on the origin myths, I have learnt how to think in both ways. Although, no one could figure out what is true, creationism or evolution or whether there will come a day when we can actually define which one is right and which isn't, I have strong belief that it was God who created the air I breathe in and the land that I live on. And I hope that this endless debate can one day end up revealing the truth.