The term “evolution” which originally meant “change” has transformed since Charles Darwin proposed Biological Evolution, or Vertical Evolution, by way of natural selection.
Darwin’s Evolutionary Model says that all species of life have descended over time form common ancestors. He and Alfred Russell Wallace introduced an illustration showing the branching patter of evolution.
In layman’s terms, evolution says that out of rocks and minerals came a single cell of life. That cell transformed into multi-cell life. Multifunctional creatures evolved from that. Skeletal creatures evolved from that. And finally, complex life forms evolved from that. But this is only the biological segment of the Evolution Model.
Since Darwin proposed his hypothesis based on his observations, mostly during his voyages on the HMS Beagle, electron microscopes and DNA have been discovered. Now biological evolution is divided into Microevolution and Macroevolution.
Microevolution is often called adaptation or horizontal evolution. All life forms have DNA with dominant traits and recessive traits. Two browned eyed parents having a blue eyed child is an example of the recessive trait coming out. Blueness did not evolve from Brownness.
A perfect example of micro evolution is the Peppered Moth example that occurred in a village in the 1850s. “White” peppered moths survived well while the black moths did not because birds spotted and ate the black moths as they lay on “white” lichen covered bark. Later, pollution killed the “white” lichen, exposing the dark bark underneath. Within years the moth population shifted color from white to black. No new species evolved. The moths just adapted via dominant and recessive genetic traits.
Macroevolution is often called vertical evolution or evolution. Darwin took microevolution, using the well-known adaptation of bird beaks to different seeds, and concluded that animals become more complex creatures as the environment changes. Another way to say this is that favorable mutations are passed on to offspring. In today’s scientific terms, we would have to say that the DNA changed so there is a new creature with new DNA.
In the past Evolutionist presented their proof in terms of 1) common design or taxonomy and 2) body part remnants or vestigial structures. Today we know that DNA does not change on its own. There must be an outside force to change DNA. Things don’t just happen; remember the Law of Causation?
Let me bring this into perspective. Did Charles Darwin understand the cell in 1859 when he published his book On the Origin of Species? No, the cell was a “black box” much like a computer is a “black box” to many people today. But today we can look into the cell and understand its process and its DNA instructions.
But the Evolution Model does not end with the evolution of human beings as described in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex published in 1871. Just like Darwin went back in time to explain human evolution we have to go back in time to explain the universe. How did it “evolve”?
Below is a list of specific “evolutions” that must have occurred:
- How did the cosmic universe with its energy and matter come into existence (Cosmic Evolution)?
- How did the Earth and all of the planets, suns, black holes, etc. come into existence (Stellular Evolution)?
- How did the chemicals in the universe come into existence (Chemical Evolution)?
- How did all of the life come into existence out of non-life (Organic Evolution)?
- How did all of the species come from one cell of life (Vertical Evolution)?
- How did the difference species adapt to different environments (Horizontal Evolution)?
Is Evolution A Theory? If so, “Evolution” cannot just be about Biological Evolution as proposed by Darwin (and many other contributors). There has to be an Evolution Model that explains all 6 of the above “Evolutions”.
How did all of what we see, feel, sell, and hear evolve out of nothing? The answer to all of this must be in the Evolution Model if we answer the question Is Evolution A Theory in the affirmative. At this time, the Evolution Model violates too many Physical Laws to be a Theory.