902. Evolutionist Claims

Do Evolutionist really claim that, given enough time, the universe started up on its own and eventually chemicals, energy, matter, stars, planets, and life evolved into you and me today?

Let’s look at the 6 different evolutionary or materialist claims:

1)  Cosmic Evolution – The formation of matter, energy, space and time from nothing.

According to Evolutionist, all matter, time, and space came out of nothing where a small point of singularity formed and then it exploded or expanded into being.

• According to Space.com:  “According to the Big Bang theory, the universe was born as a very hot, very dense, single point in space.”
• According to Scholastic.com:  “Adherents of the Big Bang believe that this small but incredibly dense point of primitive matter/energy exploded.”
• According to Phys.org: “Today, the consensus among scientists, astronomers and cosmologists is that the Universe as we know it was created in a massive explosion that not only created the majority of matter, but the physical laws that govern our ever-expanding cosmos.“
• According to NASA.org : “The big bang is how astronomers explain the way the universe began. It is the idea that the universe began as just a single point, then expanded and stretched to grow as large as it is right now—and it is still stretching!“
• According to American Museum of Natural History, “Our universe began with an explosion of space itself – the Big Bang.“
• According to Phys.org, “The universe may have existed forever, according to a new model that applies quantum correction terms to complement Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The model may also account for dark matter and dark energy, resolving multiple problems at once.  In the beginning, everything in existence is thought to have occupied a single infinitely dense point, or singularity. Only after this point began to expand in a “Big Bang” did the universe officially begin.”

2)  Stellar Evolution – The condensation of the molecular cloud (interstellar medium) and the sequence of changes that a star undergoes during its lifetime; forming other stars, planets, and universes.

According to Evolutionist, the stars, planets, moons, formed from the molecular cloud that formed from the Big Bang.

• According to National Geographic, “Scientists can’t be sure exactly how the universe evolved after the big bang. Many believe that as time passed and matter cooled, more diverse kinds of atoms began to form, and they eventually condensed into the stars and galaxies of our present universe.”
• According to the American Museum of Natural History, “
• According to Swinburne University of Technology, “Stars are born out of the gravitational collapse of cool, dense molecular clouds.”   As the cloud collapses stars are formed and surrounding clouds collapse to form planets.
• According to NASA. “The dust around a star is critical to forming celestial objects around it. Dust around stars contains elements such as carbon and iron which can help form planetary systems.”
• According to Steven Hawkins Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, “About fourteen billion years ago, the Universe began in a gigantic explosion – the Hot Big Bang! Its subsequent evolution from one hundredth of a second up to the present day can be reliably described by the Big Bang model. This includes the expansion of the Universe, the origin of light elements and the relic radiation from the initial fireball, as well as a framework for understanding the formation of galaxies and other large-scale structures. In fact, the Big Bang model is now so well-attested that it is known as the standard cosmology.”

3)  Element or Chemical Evolution – The formation of 118 chemical elements (see Periodic Table) observed today from hydrogen and helium immediately after the Big Bang through billions of years of deep time.

According to Evolutionist, our universe of elements, and chemicals formed from helium and hydrogen by way of the star life cycle.

• According to Space.com:  “The lightest elements, hydrogen and helium, were created in the first moments of time.“
• According to American Museum of Natural History, “Galaxies collected into groups, clusters, and superclusters. Some stars died in supernova explosions, whose chemical remnants seeded new generations of stars and enabled the formation of rocky planets.”

4)  Organic Evolution – Life evolved from nonliving and inorganic molecular elements

Evolutionist claim that organic mechanisms or life came from non-life.  They use the famous origin-of-life experiment from the 1950s by Stanley Miller and Harold Urey.  With just water, ammonia, hydrogen and methane, the experiment showed that an electric sparks to mimic lightning could form several of the protein precursors necessary for life on Earth. There aim was to recreate the chemical conditions of early Earth.

In other words organic material that is different from inorganic material created its own ability to grow, reproduce, perform functional activity, and continually change preceding its death.

There are 3 theories of the origin of life that rely on the appearance of life from non-life by natural process.

• Chemical Evolution (biological)  – This theory proposes pre-biological changes that transformed simple inorganic atoms (inanimate matter) and molecules into complex chemicals (living entities) needed for the origin of life.
• Spontaneous Generation  – This theory proposes that life forms have suddenly emerged fully developed from peculiar arrangements of nonliving matter.
• Strong or Weak Panspermia  – This theory proposes that primitive life, which originated somewhere else, was deposited on Earth by some other object that already harbored life.

5)  Vertical Evolution (Macro Evolution or Speciation) – 

Evolutionist claim that new species are created by the same mechanisms that they see animals adapt to its environment.  They are discussed in much detail at Biological Principles and Science Direct and noted below.

• Natural Selection – Whenever certain genotypes produce more offspring than other genotypes in response to the environment.
• Mutation Generates Variation – Whenever a mistake or mutation in DNA occurs in the cell or organism.
• Genetic Drift – Whenever the alleles frequency that make the next generation shifts.
• Gene Flow – Whenever populations are subject to different selective pressure.
• Non-random Mating – Whenever species select a different species to mate.
• Phyletic Gradualism – This is Darwinian’s hypothesis where the same adaptation differentiation causes increasing divergence between populations.
• Punctuated Equilibrium – Whenever species change over long periods of stability interrupted by relatively rapid and abrupt changes.
• Reproductive Isolation – Whenever the ability to reproduce successfully with sexual partners of another type of organism or diverging types of organism.

6)  Horizontal Evolution (Micro Evolution or Adaptation)-

There is no issue here as we see species adapt to their environment.

Summary –

While there are many different beliefs, ideas, theories, etc. in evolution, many may conflict or present a different view.   From the above quotes, one can clearly understand that evolutionist believe that given enough time anything can happen.   The universe started up on its own and eventually chemicals, energy, matter, stars, planets, and life evolved into you and me today.

Harry’s NOTES:

Can rock, sand, dirt and maybe water join together and create a one cell life form?  Here are four explanations on the internet:

• Maybe a hot volcanic pool.   See the Scientific American article here.
• Indeed, some scientists think life appeared the moment our planet’s environment was stable enough to support it.  See the Life Science article here.
• Maybe nobody know BUT, as the BBC admits, “So far nobody has managed it, but we have come a long way.”   See the BBC article here.
• Maybe there was more than one origin. David Deamer, a biochemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “… we don’t necessarily claim there was just a single origin, but just an origin that didn’t happen to get blasted by giant [asteroid] impacts.”  Read Mr. Deamer’s quote here.
• There seems to be some very cold locations in the universe per the below references:
  • According to CNN, “In 1964, two scientists used a microwave receiver to hear the radio hiss that is the modern remnant of the Big Bang. While the universe after the Big Bang was unimaginably hot, it has cooled over the eons and these measurements showed that the temperature of the universe is about 3 Kelvin (-455 ºF). Further, the temperature is extraordinarily uniform.”
  • According to Time, “The coldest place, according to astronomers using the world’s newest giant telescope, is the Boomerang Nebula, a cloud of gas puffed out by a dying star some 5,000 light-years away.”