(A) Conventional religious literature suggests the theory of special creation,which posits three main points:
$1$. All living organisms (species or types) that we see today were created in their current form.
$2$. The diversity of life has remained constant since creation and will remain the same in the future.
$3$. The Earth is approximately $4000$ years old.
These ideas were challenged in the $19$th century. Based on observations during a voyage on the $H.M.S.$ Beagle,Charles Darwin concluded that existing life forms share similarities with each other and with extinct life forms from millions of years ago.
Key points of Darwinian evolution include:
- Extinction of life forms has occurred throughout history,just as new forms have emerged.
- There has been a gradual evolution of life forms.
- Populations possess inherent variations in characteristics.
- Individuals with traits that allow better survival in natural conditions (climate,food,etc.) outbreed those less adapted. This is referred to as 'fitness'.
- Fitness,according to Darwin,refers specifically to 'reproductive fitness'.
- Those who are better fit leave more progeny,survive more,and are 'selected by nature'. This is 'natural selection',the mechanism of evolution.
- Alfred Wallace,working in the Malay Archipelago,reached similar conclusions.
- All existing life forms share common ancestors,though these ancestors existed at different geological periods.
- The geological history of Earth correlates with its biological history,proving that the Earth is billions of years old,not thousands.