The theory of evolution; how is it possible?

Question

What came before the "big bang" theory?

If we all evolved from monkeys, as the theory goes, what came before us? What came before that and so on.

If it's the dominoe effect, then there would always have to have been some form of atom or matter before it. It makes no sense to keep teaching that we 'evolved' when the question will always arise; "What came before for that? And before that?"

Wouldn't it be just as fair to say that an intelligent being, God, created everything for a purpose. That when we die, our bodies die, but we move on.

Why believe in nothing, live without the hope of nothing? I'm just a christian who's curious.

Answer 1

It's a common question that is aptly addressed in the study of cosmology. You are asking about the self-nullifying concept of time. Using your logic, time and space cannot even exist. What came before that? and that? Similarly is the endless dust principle... first we look at our bodies, then muscles, then tissues, then cells, then atoms, then quark, yadda yadda yadda. If there's always something smaller, then it doesn't make any sense at all. Matter shouldn't be.We'll just keep looking at a smaller particle ad infinitum... which is seemingly absurd. In relation to that... you have to ask about pre-God. Who created God? How did he just come to be? (Of course, this would be impossible to rationally understand)

In our limited human understanding, time is a reality we cannot preexist from, and so we can never really understand what comes BEFORE time... simply because BEFORE is a concept of time. You see, we cannot fully understand the concept of pre-time exactly because it is impossible for us to understand anything independent of time. We always understand conceptually in the context of time. You ask about creation... and creation is time-bound. Beginnings and origins imply time in its very semantics.

The Big Bang could have created the energy of time itself. The very absense of time during pre-Big Bang is hard enough (actually, I think it's impossible) as it is to imagine simply because existence is coated with time. The dimension of time could very well have earned its nascent from the Big Bang, the explosion of energy in the beginning of time (a paradox, I know).

Another interesting theory to this would be the studies of M-theory, but I did not study it that much about it. I suggest you read about it from some site.



*BTW... I'm also Christian (Roman Catholic) who majored in philosophy. I took a Cosmology class, so I'm trying to help you bridge the argument of science and theology. I'm not against intelligent design, but I also think that the Big Bang Theory makes a lot of sense. God created everything in 7 days thousand of years ago is hard to believe considering the undeniable scientific findings of fossils, earth, space, etc. My own view is that the Genesis shouldn't be approached at a literal level in its biblical interpretation (I repeat, my own view. so dont start getting offended). Saying that everything just came to be is just intellectually lazy. Who knows, maybe there's an answer that explains both Creationism and the Evolutionary Theory. Just keep an open mind.

Answer 2

Personally, while I feel some higher power had a hand in creating the parts of the universe that came together into what we know today, the things evolved mostly on their own, or under the high power's hand.

But then again, what we think we know is questionable - notice that new theories come up every day, facts have changed many times (like the Earth is flat, the big one). We really don't know as much as we'd like to think we do. Maybe if we did we wouldn't be killing the only home we're meant to have.

Answer 3

You are asking a lot of good questions (and you seem to be asking with sincerity, so I'm assuming you are actually reading some of the very good answers you are getting).

First, separate the "big bang" theory from the theory of evolution. They are not related at all. Either one could be absolutely false, and the other could still be absolutely true ... they do not depend on each other or affect each other AT ALL.

Philosophically your question has merit, but scientifically it it doesn't go very far.

You came from your parents, and your parents from your grandparents, and so on. But just because you can't trace your origins back more than a few generations doesn't invalidate the fact that you *know* you came from your parents.

The same is with evolution. We have *tons* of evidence from genetics, fossils, anatomy, etc. etc. that humans and monkeys have a common ancestor (not that humans evolved from monkeys ... this is the CARTOON version of evolution). And this genetic (etc.) evidence indicates that the primates have a common ancestor with the other mammals, and the mammals with other vertebrates (birds, reptiles, amphibians, etc.) all the way back. This genetic evidence indicates a common ancestry for all living organisms on the planet right back to the first living cells.

But just because the same kind of evidence (genetics, fossils, anatomy) etc. can go no further, doesn't mean that the evidence tracing our origins that far isn't *really* solid.

> "Why believe in nothing, live without the hope of nothing?"

Oh, believing in evolution is NOT believing in "nothing." Here is what I believe:

I do not get my purpose in life from the theory of evolution ... any more than I get purpose from the theory of gravity, or from the atomic theory of matter. They are scientific theories only. They are brilliant and beautiful, but they do not tell us about *why* we are here ... they were never intended to.

Evolution tells us about life. It does not tell us how to live.

Evolution is not about our purpose. It is about biology no more. It is science. It is backed up by enormous evidence that simply cannot be denied if we use the senses and brains that God gave us ... so a believer in God either must believe that God has put this evidence here to deceive us (which I do not believe), or you believe that God created life and humans using the spectacular process called *evolution*.

If ever you want evidence of divine creation, look at evolution. To me, it makes life far more profound and meaningful to know that it took God four billion years of small acts of triumph, defeat, beauty, and pain, than six days of effortless magic.

Answer 4

Evolution is simply a perfection of a life form, it does not deny God, but it simply means that an animal has become better suited to its environment. The first day you joined school, everything was strange and new, but over weeks, you adapted to match acceptable behavior...animals or life has done the same...simply over many years, a change in color, body shape, foods, etc to make it fit the surroundings. You also add another context to your question and that is religious or belief. What happens after death is shaped by your religious belief, and evolution and religion are widely apart.

Answer 5

Where is the "*tons*" of evidence for evolution? Everything I've researched has been proven to be a fraud. The evolutionist wants to believe that they control their own lives without any consequences for wrong doing. 'I'm always right and your always wrong', 'I know more than you so I'm better than you', 'you only go around once, have fun while it lasts' and 'If it feels good, do it' are common phrases from evolutionists. The big bang is only possible through the imaginations of evolutionists who want to live a life without any guilt of sin. After all, if nothing blew up and created everything how did we ever conclude what was right and wrong? Did that speck of dirt that blew up and created everything make up all the rules? I think there was a Creator who said "Thow shalt not . . ." otherwise it would have been perfectly fine for Hitler to kill all those Jews simply because they were a subspecies and did not belong in the evolutionary tree because they would not produce anything better.

Answer 6

So what you are saying is that because we cannot explain everything about evolution we should discount it? The reason that evolution is the only scientifically viable and supported theory as to the origins of life on Earth is because it is the only one that has any evidence. There is no, I repeat, NO evidence to suggest that there was/is an intelligent being that created life on earth.

I disagree that living with evolution is believing in nothing. Believing in creationism is, in my opinion, the scientific equivalent of believing in nothing. It is deus ex machina. It is just assuming that things work because. What is more hopeless than just assuming things work because they are supposed to? What is more hopeless than thinking that one can never understand the world that he lives in? There is no curiosity to creationism. It has no thirst to determine what happened and why. It just accepts things with out trying to understand them. I would argue that curiosity is one of the most important human traits.

To get back to your original question, Monkeys evolved from early mammals, which evolved from early multicellular organisms, which evolved from single celled bacteria, which came, possibly, from protoplasm.

What came before the big bang? Science doesn't know, but that has not stopped inquisitive minds from trying to find out.

Answer 7

In nature we see complexity arise from simplicity. The physics of the "big bang" can give rise to subatomic particles from a singularity. Subatomic particles naturally combine to form protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons naturally combine to form hydrogen, helium and lithium. Nuclear fusion (as in a star) changes hydrogen and helium to higher elements. Higher elements react with each other to naturally form organic chemicals. Organic chemicals can combine to catalyze chemical reactions, form proteins, form shards of RNA. Strands of RNA can replicate themselves. This can kick-start a biological evolution process, where complexity is acquired through gene duplication, transcription errors, natural selection, etc.

But if we introduce an intelligent, supernatural force it simply begs the question--where did that come from? Only one of two answers, it was created by something still more complex--leading to an infinite regression of complexity which is logically impossible, or that this intelligent supernatural force itself evolved from something simpler. Intellectually then, as far as an ultimate explanation of origins, god did it is an unsatisfactory explanation.

Now this does not mean that the failure to embrace god means that one cannot enjoy a richly meaningful life. I am an atheist, but my life is filled with meaning, love, charity, etc. I simply embrace these possibilities as wonderful opportunities that have evolved within my species. One does not need an imaginary "after-life" to find great meaning in what can be experienced here and now in one's real life.

Answer 8

In reply to your final sentence: I'm just an atheist who is curious. Curious about the world around me. Interested in facts, not myths. I thoroughly enjoy my life and make the best of it because that is all we have. My christian friends seem much more fearful of death than I am.

We non-believers do not live in despair with no hope. We live our lives to the fullest. Our ethical code is "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you".

We consider the myth of a god who created everything to be quite a bit more impossible than evolution. It is not intellectual thinking to accept this belief with no evidence whatsoever.

Answer 9

There was an old idea about how the Earth was supported on the back of a giant elephant. And when the philospher was asked what supported the elephant, he said another elephant of course. Here is one example of circular logic.

But you are guilty of the same hipocrasy.

What came before God?

Answer 10

in the theory we did not come from monkeys. we share a common ancestor. but then how come you are automatically saying god did not create evolution. I do not believe in evolution but I think perhaps you should study it a little more. before trying to attack a theory with out even knowing what it really says.