Evolution and Creationism:
What Everyone Needs to Know
1. What is science?
2. Evolution: a quick overview
-- evidence
-- mechanisms
3. The age of the Earth/”how do you know how
old it is?”
4. What is creationism
5. Evolution answers questions
7. Why is evolution important?
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Science =
-- a “Way of knowing”
-- materialistic/naturalistic
-- hypotheses that are testable and
provisional
Science 
-- certainty
-- ethics
-- values
-- religion
-- politics
-- the answer for every question
-- all of human thought
Organic Evolution
Definitions: The hypothesis that
all organisms on Earth are
connected by bonds of genealogy
and have changed through time.
Darwin: “descent with
modification”
The Origin tried to do 2 things:
• 1) Convince the reader that evolution has
occurred and is an adequate explanation for
observations about life.
• 2) Convince the reader that a particular
mechanism – natural selection – is the main
cause of evolution.
The occurrence of evolution
(“the fact of evolution”)

mechanism by which evolution
occurs.
Evolution is scientifically useful.
 it is testable
 it answers questions
 it stimulates further research
“How did organisms come to be
the way they are?”
• They have a history.
• They don’t. They were created as we see
them.
• We can extrapolate from changes we
observe today.
• We cannot extrapolate from changes we
observe today.
Evidence for Evolution
•
•
•
•
•
•
1) Biogeography
2) Fossil record
3) Classification
4) Comparative Anatomy
5) Observed small-scale changes
6) Genetics
Some examples…
(there are thousands…)
Evidence for Evolution: Biogeography
Evidence for Evolution: Biogeography
Evidence for Evolution: Biogeography
Toucan (Neotropics)
Hornbill (SE Asia)
Evidence for Evolution: The fossil record
Archaeopteryx and modern pigeon
Archaeopteryx
Compsognathus
Evidence for Evolution: Comparative Anatomy
North Atlantic Right Whale
No serious practicing geologist or organismal
biologist has seriously questioned whether
evolution has occurred, or whether it is an
adequate explanation for the history and
diversity of life since at least the 1890s.
There has been, and continues to be, debate
about the causes and mechanisms of
evolutionary change.
Mechanisms of Evolution
• Directed evolution/Internal mechanisms “orthogenesis” etc.
• Inheritance of acquired characteristics
(“Lamarckism”)
• Genetic drift
• Neutral theory
• Natural Selection
• Higher level sorting
Natural Selection
Definition: The non-random and
differential reproduction of
different genotypes acting to
preserve favorable variants and
eliminate less favorable variants.
“3 unarguable observations
and 2 inescapable conclusions”
• Observations:
– 1) There is variation
– 2) At least some of it is inherited
– 3) There is vast overproduction
• Conclusions:
– 1) There is a “struggle for existence”.
– 2) On average, those individual organisms with traits
that confer some advantage in this struggle will leave
more offspring.
The age of the Earth
• aka: “how do you know how old it is?”
• aka: “aren’t there problems with ‘carbon
dating’?”
“How do you know
how old it is?”
Techniques for dating things
•
•
•
•
Relative dating: “X is older than Y”
Numerical dating: “X is Y years old”
Historically unique events: e.g., 1965 Mustang
Processes of change (observe results): e.g., weathering,
deterioration, erosion
• Processes of change (experiments): e.g., moldy cheese
• Historically repeating events: e.g., Greek revival
architecture
Using fossils to tell time: biostratigraphy
Radiometric Dating:
the basic idea
• A product is detectable
• The rate of production of that product is
known
• Product amount is 0 (or known) at age 0 of
sample
• Product / Rate = Time
– example:
10g / 0.5g/yr = 20 years
Seneca Stone Quarry
http://www.earth.rochester.edu/ees207/Eastern_Transect/senecastone.html
Bentonites (ancient
volcanic ash layers)
in the Seneca Stone
Quarry
http://www.earth.rochester.edu/ees207/Eastern_Transect/senecastone.html
1. What is science?
2. Evolution: a quick overview
-- evidence
-- mechanisms
3. The age of the Earth/”how do you know how
old it is?”
4. What is creationism
5. Evolution answers questions
7. Why is evolution important?
“Creationism”
isn’t science
Creationism: a definition
• General: The Universe, the Earth, and all
life were created directly by a supernatural
creator (God).
• Variations:
– young Earth vs. old Earth
– one creation (“special”) vs. many (“sequential”)
– non-humans vs. humans
Creationism: a taxonomy
• Scientific creationism (no reliance on Biblical
revelation, utilizing only scientific data)
• Biblical creationism (no reliance on scientific
data, using only the Bible)
• Scientific Biblical creationism (full reliance
on Bible, but also using science)
(from Scott, Evolution vs. Creationism, 2004)
Creationism and science
• It was cutting-edge science… about 500
years ago.
• It has been tested, and it failed.
• Current public opinion, however…
U.S. public opinion, 2005
HALF OF AMERICANS ARE “CREATIONISTS”
• 54% do not think human beings developed from
earlier species (up from 46 percent in 1994)
• 49% believe plants and animals have evolved from
some other species; 45% do not believe that.
• 46% believe apes and humans have a common
ancestry; 47% believe we do not.
• 46% agree that "Darwin’s theory of evolution is
proven by fossil discoveries“; 48% disagree.
Source: Harris poll, June 2005
Poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life,
conducted July 2005 among 2,000 U.S. adults
• Life has existed in its present form since the
beginning of time: 42%
• Life has evolved over time: 48%
– Guided by a supreme being: 18%
– Evolution by natural selection: 26%
– Don’t know how evolved: 4%
• Don’t know: 10%
Polls 2001
BUT
• “Evolution should be taught in the public schools”
(70%)
• “The continents on which we live have been
moving their location for millions of years...”.
(79%)
Intelligent Design:
what is it?
• Holds that “where there is a watch, there
must be a watchmaker”.
• Living things are too complex not to have
been designed by an intelligent designer.
• Claims to accept evolution and an old Earth.
Intelligent Design:
How to answer a question about it
• Even if it doesn’t mention God, religion, or
a “creator”, it assumes there is/was one.
• This is supernatural and non-testable.
• It’s not science.
Why does this matter?
• Science
• Science education