[Calliope]: 216.Essays.Evolutionism vs Creationism

Evolutionism Vs. Creationism

  Evolutionism and creationism have been pitted against one another from the very beginning. Each contradicting the other, each with supporting evidence. For centuries people could only pick one side or the other until the arrival of theistic evolution, the happy medium. With the progress of our culture, the strength creationism had has been dwindling so that the majority of people side with this middle theory. There are those, however, that you could call bold enough to support either the left or right side of this argument or origins. I like to think that I am included in this bold group of people as I am a firm believer in evolutionism.

  There are many reasons why I believe in evolutionism over creationism, the main probably being my lack of exposure to physical evidence supporting creationism. Everybody has grown up knowing about the Bible and many consider it evidence enough and under other circumstances, I would agree. However, most of us have been told not to believe everything that we see, hear, and read, so why do so many people believe what they read in this book? First off, there is no set author(s) so who are we to say it wasn't just some story that crossed the boundaries of acceptance? People are known for not believing in legends and stories passed down for hundreds of eyars so what's different about this one that is thousands, not hundreds, of years old? This faith itself oculd be the strongest evidence I know supporting creationism except that I know how creationist authors tend to use propoganda in making their points.

  The pattern found when reading creationist literature doesn't support creationism. Most articles focus on the more obscure fossil findings of human evolution making them easier to disprove and label as ape remains. Frequent mention of ramapithecus can be found in many of the articles. It is generally used to plant a seed of doubt regarding the efficiency of science for in the beginning, ramapithecus was considered a hominid but was later removed from our genus. Other findins that are exploited regularily include Piltdown Man and Nebraska Man. Each of these findings also have obvious faults that make people doubt the validity of science and evolution.

  Piltdown Man was a hoax consisting of a Homo Sapien skull and an ape jaw. For over forty years Piltdown Man was a major contender for the "missing link" until it's exposure in 1953. One of the main suspects behind the hoax was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, which, if so, would have nothing to do with scientific manipulation.

  Nebraska Man, although not a hoax, was a case of mistaken identity. Hesperopithecus heroldcookii was an entire species created around the findings of a single tooth. Creationist's, ringing true to their name, created yet more suspicion around evolution by misrepresenting many scientists views on, what turned out to be, a peccary tooth. Scientists have been hesitant about placing the tooth in our evolutionary line and even less supportive of developing an entire species around it. Despire this, Nebraska Man is still used as an example of scientific folly.

  Even more compelling in creationist literature though, is the omission, or near omission, of prime examples representing transitional phases in human evolution. The exlusion of findings such as OH 7 (Homo habilis), ER 1813 (Homo habilis), ER 3733 (Homo ergaster), Sangiran 17 (Homo erectus) and Sts 5 (Australopithecus africanus) support this. Each of these examples posses features that make them difficult to classify as son, like OH 7, OH 24 and ER 1813 are amazingly transitional. Authors excuse these omissions by stating that the handful of primitive features these findings posses obviously make them ape thus make them unimportant in evolutionary discussions. They completley ignore prognathic reductions, bipedal fossils and increasing cranial capacity. They classify anything too different from Homo sapiens as ape but adamantly refuse, with the odd exception, to mention Homo erectus, Homo habilis, or Australopithecus afrincanus.

  While the majority of supportive evidence of human ecolution comes from fossils, they cannot always be classified by their features. A number of findings posses both primitive and modern feathers causing confusions of where to place them on our family tree. This is wher emodern technology steps in. They analysis of Cro Magnon mitochondrial DNA has proven that Cro Magnons did not breed with Neanderthals. In the event that they did, it was large Cro Magnon groups and small Neanderthal groups. This means that Cro Magnons had to have exterminated the Neanderthals insinuating that they had ecolutionary superiority over their branched off cousins. The mitochondrial DNA of living people have also been compared to remaind with the resuls aligning with the single-orgin, out-of-Africa, theory.

  The direction I took in this paper only included human ecolution and just scratched the surface of that. There are many other field, such as embryology, that don't focus solely on hominids, but on the evolution of all other organisms as well. There are many theories of how evolution occurs, each with its own evidence. Take, for instance, Homo erectus and natural selection. It has been hypothesized that a migration of Home erectus to the island of Flores in Indonesia led to the creaion of Home floresiensis, or Flores Man, through the process of natural selection. This dwarfed member of our family shattered the conception that you need a specific brain size to accomplish certain activities as well as led to the destruction of the belief that the Cro Magnons systematically removed all other members of our genus.

  However, this ancient, preserved evidence is not all that I base my belief on. There have been records kept of humans for 12,000 years and these records tell us that evolution is still occuring. On average, each generation is 2.5 inches taller than their parents. This is most likely because of mate selection and height generally coinciding with strength/support. It has also been proven, that since records began being kept, our skulls and brains have expanded up to three inches in width. As a species we are always developing more tools and because of this we are always changing the way we use our bodies (It is expected that eventually we will lose our pinky and ring fingers because of lack of use). This is adding its input into our evolution, manipulating us in order to provide the smoothest survival. These past, present and future examples of evolution combine, making me a believer of evolutionism over creationism.

© Angie O'Connor