Introduction
“All men by nature desire to know” (Aristotle, Metaphysics Book I). Curiosity is an instinct of human beings in that they would wish to be closer to the acquisition of true reality. With the invention of science, human beings at the time have pondered the genesis of species in the world. There are two prevalent, albeit contradicting, beliefs which can be applied to elucidate the origin of life, namely creationism and evolution. In the following, this paper is going to elucidate that evolution via natural selection would be a better theory in explaining the origin of species.
Creationism
By definition, creationism refers to “a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out …show more content…
It is evidence-based that can substantiate the theories in explaining the world phenomena, for instance, the provenance of life. Unlike narratives, modern science is not ill-founded with groundless claims, but solid and justified facts, which makes itself a cogent argument. The nature of science, which is its falsifiability, testability and predictability makes itself a more compelling argument in that any scepticism or disputes can be addressed.
Famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that true knowledge is gained through the process of deductive reasoning (Lindberg par. 11). The importance of science in substantiating theories is that it is the study through which deductive reasoning can be demonstrated. In the time when Darwin was in his study of relationships between organisms, he carefully observed the inextricable relation between the features of organisms and their geographical distribution. By the collection of a series of facts and observations, he then arrived at a conclusion that there were actually similarities between organisms, and that they were not separately created, but evolved from one another (Darwin par. 71). Through his study, he arrived at every step with evidence which supported his …show more content…
71), adherents of creationism may cast aspersions on how one can justify the existence of previous life forms if human beings can never observe any evolutionary process of organisms during their whole lifetime. Yet, as suggested in the Allegory of Cave (Plato 5-9), human beings would be easily deceived by relying on only sense experience in their exploration of the world (Lindberg par. 10). Their perception that evolution escapes our senses can be redressed by science using fossil records. Fossil records are the remains of organisms buried under sedimentary rock. Many records were found to prove the existence of various extinct organisms. With the dawn of science, we can now prove that the existence of dinosaurs in millions of years ago by examining the fossil records left over the years. These records can show the continuously transitional forms of organisms from ancient time to the present, and the different extent of complexity exhibited by the fossils can show how life evolves from simple to modified and complex structures due to the action of natural selection (BioLogos
“All men by nature desire to know” (Aristotle, Metaphysics Book I). Curiosity is an instinct of human beings in that they would wish to be closer to the acquisition of true reality. With the invention of science, human beings at the time have pondered the genesis of species in the world. There are two prevalent, albeit contradicting, beliefs which can be applied to elucidate the origin of life, namely creationism and evolution. In the following, this paper is going to elucidate that evolution via natural selection would be a better theory in explaining the origin of species.
Creationism
By definition, creationism refers to “a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out …show more content…
It is evidence-based that can substantiate the theories in explaining the world phenomena, for instance, the provenance of life. Unlike narratives, modern science is not ill-founded with groundless claims, but solid and justified facts, which makes itself a cogent argument. The nature of science, which is its falsifiability, testability and predictability makes itself a more compelling argument in that any scepticism or disputes can be addressed.
Famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that true knowledge is gained through the process of deductive reasoning (Lindberg par. 11). The importance of science in substantiating theories is that it is the study through which deductive reasoning can be demonstrated. In the time when Darwin was in his study of relationships between organisms, he carefully observed the inextricable relation between the features of organisms and their geographical distribution. By the collection of a series of facts and observations, he then arrived at a conclusion that there were actually similarities between organisms, and that they were not separately created, but evolved from one another (Darwin par. 71). Through his study, he arrived at every step with evidence which supported his …show more content…
71), adherents of creationism may cast aspersions on how one can justify the existence of previous life forms if human beings can never observe any evolutionary process of organisms during their whole lifetime. Yet, as suggested in the Allegory of Cave (Plato 5-9), human beings would be easily deceived by relying on only sense experience in their exploration of the world (Lindberg par. 10). Their perception that evolution escapes our senses can be redressed by science using fossil records. Fossil records are the remains of organisms buried under sedimentary rock. Many records were found to prove the existence of various extinct organisms. With the dawn of science, we can now prove that the existence of dinosaurs in millions of years ago by examining the fossil records left over the years. These records can show the continuously transitional forms of organisms from ancient time to the present, and the different extent of complexity exhibited by the fossils can show how life evolves from simple to modified and complex structures due to the action of natural selection (BioLogos