what'is evolution and how's it different from creationism?

Question

i'm dead serious, what is evolution? how is it different from creationism? can you please elaborate in as much detail as possible. Thanks a bunch people.

"The difference is that evolution is really how life evolved. Evolution is not about how life began...just how it evolved once it began."

- how did life began according to evolution aurora??? thank u.

Answer 1

As stated above, evolution is the theory on how life on Earth, once it began changed over time. Creationism is a bit more difficult to pin down because there are about 8 varieties of Creationism that I have been able to identify. To simplify I will pick the newest incarnation, intelligent design.

The big important differences are in their implications and by consequence their predictions.

Evolution must work regardless of whether the scientist is a Christian, Buddhist, Atheist or Hindu. So it is neutral as to belief system.

Evolution states that due to entropy certain chemical reactions in DNA, RNA and proteins happen imperfectly. Mistakes or mutations occur due to entropy. In practice, most of these changes are either harmless and result in no real observable change or result in an organism that cannot survive. Stillbirth and birth defects are the human example.

Although the changes are unplanned, undirected and unintentional they do follow the deterministic rules of chemistry. To provide a macroworld example, consider a person sitting on a tree limb. Imagine the limb is just strong enough to hold the person. Unexpectedly a cat jumps on the limb and the limb breaks. The cat jumping on the limb is the random act. The consequences are deterministic. When a mutation occurs the outcomes follow the laws of chemistry. The mutation itself is set in motion by deterministic but unpredictable events, but the consequences must in the end follow the rules of science, given the unexpected influences.

Some of these mutations make certain other mutations very chemically likely. If a population has this type of mutation occur in it en masse, then it can happen that many organisms of a species are born with the subsequent mutation. Sometimes that subsequent mutation prevents other members of the species from breeding with them. It makes them a mule. Sometimes, while those mules cannot breed with the parent species they can breed with each other. A new species is formed when this happens if there are enough children to form the critical mass to keep the new species large enough to reproduce and possibly thrive.

If the new species' mutation also happens to make the species better fitted to its environment then it is more likely to thrive. If it survives then we find evidence the species exists.

There are a few other ways a species could form, but this one is sufficient for our example.

So evolution says that there is no thing directing the changes in the universe, there is no designer, the process is not random but it is stochastic. The "design" of species should be primarily from small incremental changes with occasional jumps. Some species undergo the small changes constantly, such as the flu virus. The appropriate math for this is differential topology and "catastrophe" theory. The changes should be energy conserving.

Since it is "unintelligently designed" you expect a "bathtub" curve type of mortality. Many babies are so poorly designed that they die at a very high rate for a variety of reasons. You see bathtub curves in all biological species and in engineering products that are designed by students, amateurs and incompetent professionals. Intelligently designed engineering projects fail at increasing rates based on time and usage, but human bodies fail at an initially declining rate as small babies ill fitted to the environment die at a rate about equal to 20 year old males. After the poorly fit organisms die off early, they then begin to fail at increasing rates.

Intelligent design should imply that there should be no birth defects since the designer fit the species well to its environment. Death rates should reflect wear and tear from entropy. To create babies to kill them to teach a lesson would be the only other reason and a Creator like that would be so evil that the Creator should not be worshiped.

Evolution implies that the changes are constant. New species should form all the time and this is in fact what has been observed. There are over 100 well observed instances of speciation. These spontaneous instances do not include those man made species. Many were under highly controlled circumstances and the formation of a new species messed up experiments.

Intelligent design says God created the species and no new ones can exist. There can be no macroevolution. This of course is contrary to the observed data.

Finally, because evolution follows predictable chemical processes you should be able to engineer species and drugs based upon evolutionary changes. This has of course occurred. There are many drugs that cannot exist if evolution is false.

Of interest, intelligent design implies that many drugs and man made species that do exist cannot exist.

Finally, intelligent design serves to protect "original sin." If death did not enter the world as a consequence of human sin, if it is just the result of entropy and pre-existed man, then the death of Jesus was unnecessary. Intelligent design also fails to explain how the sin of one person could propagate to all species killing all life in the Universe through that one person's moral choice. It also fails to explain how a soul exists and why it would matter to anyone that one does. It makes predictions that it says cannot be tested or proven. Science does not do that.

Finally, evolution does not say how life started, just that it did and in fact it is a slightly different field of biology. There was recently an unexpected set of results in a NASA experiment on one of Saturn's moons. Because the moon has an atmosphere believed to be similar to the early Earth atmosphere they decided to recreate that moon's atmosphere and simply expose it to continuous sunlight in the amount the same as received on that moon. I believe the only two chemicals involved were methane and gaseous sulfur. When exposed to a continuous flow of photons, organic compounds naturally formed. The implication is that dna and rna are simply the energy minimizing consequence of basic chemicals and sunlight. It did not create dna or rna, but it did create the basic organic compounds, with billions of years of chemical interactions the formation of dna or rna is not a big mental leap. Science isn't certain yet how abiogenesis happened, but obviously it did. It is obvious to a chemist or biologist that the foundational processes not only did not need direction, but that it would require an enormous amount of work to design this on purpose, more than if it happened on its own.

The two theories result in different predictions. Evolution's predictions do in fact happen, Creationism's predictions do not happen, but then the Creator is mysterious.

Answer 2

Evolution theory is the belief that man came from a lower species. (There is really nothing in science to back this up. It's based on speculation, based on microevolutionary processes. For example, the famous Galapogas Island finches, and how their beaks evolved, but guess what: they're still finches! To believe they could someday evolve enough to change species, takes a leap of faith, or, speculation. Well, speculation is not true science.)

Creation theory is the belief that man was made by an intelligence, mutually exclusive of every other lower species. (There is plenty of science to back this up.)

Creation theory says that the male was made first, and woman was made second from a piece of the male's bone. Evolution contradicts this asect, since you would have needed both sexes to exist at every moment in the evolutionary process.

In the bible, which outlines creation in Genesis, we are told that there was NO DEATH on earth until the first sin was committed by the first man and woman. Evolution again contradicts, because death is a necessary factor in the evolutionary process, and there would have been many many deaths before man and woman came to be, and that means there would have been death on earth before the first sin.

Plenty of other differences, but that's a few examples for you.

Answer 3

In biology, evolution is the change in the inherited traits of a population from generation to generation. These traits are the expression of genes that are copied and passed on to offspring during reproduction. Mutations in these genes can produce new or altered traits, resulting in heritable differences (genetic variation) between organisms. New traits can also come from transfer of genes between populations, as in migration, or between species, in horizontal gene transfer. Evolution occurs when these heritable differences become more common or rare in a population, either non-randomly through natural selection or randomly through genetic drift.

Creationism is the believe by faith alone that an invisible god created everything.

The difference is that evolution is really how life evolved. Evolution is not about how life began...just how it evolved once it began.

atheist

Answer 4

Evolution is one tool box that God uses to create and modify life. Creationism simply doesn't bother with the steps involved, although there are a few proponents who can and do show how evolution REQUIRES information to be added in order for successful mutations to occur.

Answer 5

Evolution is the theory that says that living organisms come from one ancestor, that is all of the plants animals and humans are relatives and originated all from the same cell. Mosquitoes are our relatives. Trees are our sisters. And each organism is selected to survive by natural selection and survival is for the fittest. that is evolution in short.
As for creationism, i don't know.

Answer 6

Evolution says that animals evolved to be the way they are. Creationism says animals were made the way they are.

Answer 7

Creationism gives credit to the Creator [God] for the existence of all that is.

Evolution is a creation of the Creator's creations; and it doesn't explain how it all began.

Answer 8

Evolution is the rational and proven reasoning behind how we got here. Creationism is one of many religious-based myths regarding the same thing.

Answer 9

evolution shows a pattern of how things came to existence

creation is a story how life came into existence

Answer 10

Evolution is a demonstrated process that explains the diversity of life of Earth.

Creationism is hand waving and lies to force finding to fit an old book.