Evolution

For thousands of years, humans have attempted to explain the uprising of humans onto our planet. The Greeks believed a plethora of gods send Prometheus to earth with the first woman, Pandora. The Egyptians believe that the sun god, Ra, came down and created the rest of the gods to govern the newly created earth. A widely accepted creation story involves the creation of Adam by God and then the creation of Eve using the rib of Adam. These two humans, in turn, reproduced to create all of mankind according to the Christians. Although there have been many creation stories in the past, the newest, containing the most evidence, and the one becoming more accepted among the population, is the theory of Evolution.

Evolution is becoming the most accepted "creation" story due to the vast amounts of evidence supporting it such as fossil structures, anatomical and embryonic similarities of related life forms, the geographic distribution of species, and of course, natural selection. Fossil structures are the most tangible evidence of evolution. Fossils of ancient hominids, first found by Professor Dart in1925, are stone-cold examples of our early ancestors. The array of hominids later found shows an evolutionary chain gradually leading to modern humans. These ancient fossils are clearly early ancestors of modern man due to their bipedal nature, their enlarged cranial cavity and there foot patterns. Anatomical and Embryonic similarities also suggest an evolutionary design. For example, early mammals, in their embryonic state, are almost identical, showing similar structures and organs. Anatomical similarities among species of the same genus are also evidence of evolution, For example, the similarities in the structures of wolves, dogs and foxes show that these animals must have evolved from the same early life form. The natural geographic distribution of species is another clue to patterns of evolution. For example, in isolated islands such as Hawaii and New Zealand plant, insect and bird life has evolved here and in nowhere else in the world. This is most likely explained by evolution that has been happening in these isolated areas for millions of years. Finally, the most common and most easily demonstrated evidence of evolution is natural selection. Charles Darwin first noticed this on his trip to the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific. He noted that the finch population had different beak structure depending on what they ate. For example and finch that ate nuts had a large bulky beak to crack the shell, while a finch that ate larvae had a thinner beak in order to extract larvae from the inside of trees. Darwin explained that over time, each finch evolved to its diet and then passed on the new genes to the next generation. The great amounts of evidence for evolution make evolution the most probable explanation for human life.

Some groups, however, do not view evolution as the reason for human existence. Creationists believe that and divine power, God, created the earth in 6 24 hour days. On the first day, God created the heavens and