This document discusses the evolution of ideas around evolution from ancient creation stories to modern scientific theory. It provides an overview of key figures and discoveries that shaped scientific thought on the origins and development of life over time. Some of the major topics covered include ancient creation myths from various cultures/religions, the early classification work of Linnaeus, Lamarck's early evolutionary ideas, Darwin's voyage on the Beagle and subsequent publication of On the Origin of Species, and how the theory of evolution has continued to develop based on new evidence.

1. The Evolution of Evolution
The battle of science over emotion:
The fear of losing our starring role in
the drama called life.

2. Creation
• God said – and then it
happened.
• In Christianity this is done
in seven days.
• The Bible contains two
versions of creation.
• When Cain kills Able, he
gets a bride from Nod,
another people not part of
the Judeo-Christian
creation.

3. The puzzle of the creation stories is
religion, not science.
• Anyone teaching Historical Geology is faced with
students who have already concluded that
creationism explains the history of the earth. One
of the questions that perplexes me is how such
students can conclude that their ethnic or
religious group has the complete explanation of
the origin of the earth and its life, when so many
ethnic or religious groups have so many different
accounts of those origins. Bruce Railsback, a
geologist at the University of Georgia.

4. Shinto
• Of old, Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and
Yo, not yet divided. They formed a chaotic mass like an egg which
was of obscurely defined limits and contained germs.
The purer and clearer part was thinly drawn out, and formed
Heaven, while the heavier and grosser element settled down and
became Earth.
The finer element easily became a united body, but the
consolidation of the heavy and gross element was accomplished
with difficulty.
Heaven was therefore formed first, and Earth was established
subsequently.

5. African Creation
• Each of the nine animals plays its role by creating more creatures to
populate the world.
• An African Cosmogony" tells of how the world was created through
a powerful being named Bumba, who regurgitates the
sun, moon, stars, and the first nine living creatures.
• Bumba also makes it clear that those whose behavior is detrimental
to the community have no place in the community. For
instance, Tsetse, lightning, is chased away for being a trouble-maker.
• Bumba sums up this sense of community by saying, "Behold these
wonders. They belong to you." The earth is both the property and
responsibility of every creature.
• Lastly, the respect each person should have for the dead is shown
through the ants, created by Nyonye Ngana.

6. Indigenous Creation Stories
• The Navajo creation story involves three underworlds
where important events happened to shape the Fourth
World where we now live.
• The Lakota also has life begin beneath the earth and
emerge through the hole we call Wind Cave.

7. • This is a theory - does that put it on equal
status with Creation stories?
• A theory links scientific facts.
• It tests the facts against a variety of
experiments and knowledge
• A theory is one of sciences over arching
concepts and one of its strongest.

8. Two views from today’s churches
• The geologic column • Today, fresh knowledge has
which is cited as physical led to the recognition that
evidence of evolution evolution is more than a
occurring in the past, is hypothesis. It is indeed
better explained as the remarkable that this theory
result of a devastating has been progressively
global flood which accepted by
happened 5,000 years ago. researchers, following a
There is no reason not to series of discoveries in
believe that god created the various fields of knowledge.
universe, earth, plants, ani The convergence, neither
mals, and people just as sought nor fabricated… is in
described in the book of itself significant argument in
Genesis. favor of this theory.
• Creation Science Website • Pope John Paul II, 1996

9. Evolution’s evolution
• First we need to see connections between
living things.
• Next we need to be able to measure change
and accept adaptation.
• Then we have to accept that there has been
extinction from a variety of causes
• Finally we have to have an earth old enough
to allow for change.

10. Adaptations
• This is the key word
in evolution. It
implies that
organisms change
over time in
relationship to
changes in climate
and biological
pressures.

11. Rate of change
• Organisms that reproduce rapidly, evolve quicker. Fruit
Flies provided the first really concrete measure of
evolution because they can have multiple populations in a
month.
• Insects adapt to insecticides so that populations of
survivors produce offspring immune to the chemical and
new ones must be produced.
• In the south the cotton booweevil was first controlled by
DDT, now it is immune, that chemical was replaced and
now we have insects immune to both, but we farmers still
place both on their crops because they have no other
options. This proof of adaptation and evolution has taken
place in the strongest regional of anti-evolution sentiments.

12. Extinction
• Since the beginning of life 99% of known
species have gone extinct.
• In Jefferson’s time, extinction was a
concept that was not allowed by the church
because it was considered an affront to god
and implied that god had erred. They had
two answers to the fossils – either they were
placed here by the devil – or the animals
were still living in some exotic and
undiscovered part of South America or
Africa – Doyle used this as the basis for his
novel the Lost Continent.

13. Aristotle
• Each form had a stet position in a ladder of
nature that reflected its degree of perfection.
• The bottom of the ladder had the
inanimate, progressed to jelly fish and on up
to humans.
• Nothing could move up the ladder.

14. ARISTOTLES LADDER
• What is higher on the scale of being is of more worth
• Species on this scale are eternally fixed in their
place, and cannot evolve over time.
• Further, the lower items are inorganic and the higher
are organic. The principle which gives internal
organization to the higher or organic items on the
scale of being is life, or what he calls the soul of the
organism.
• Even the human soul is nothing but the organization
of the body.
• Plants are the lowest forms of life on the scale, and
their souls contain a nutritive element by which it
preserves itself.
• Animals are above plants on the scale, and their
souls contain an appetitive feature which allows
them to have sensations, desires, and thus gives them
the ability to move.
• The scale of being proceeds from animals to humans.
• The human soul shares the nutritive element with
plants, and the appetitive element with animals, but
also has a rational element which is distinctively our
own.

15. Carl Von Linne –
Linnaeus 1707-1778
• Father of Taxonomy.
His system for
naming, ranking, and
classifying organisms
is still in wide use
today

16. A synopsis of Linnaeus System.
• His religious beliefs led him to natural theology:
since God has created the world, it is possible to
understand God's wisdom by studying His creation.
• Linnaeus's plant taxonomy was based solely on the
number and arrangement of the reproductive organs
• The sexual basis of Linnaeus's plant classification
was controversial in its day.
• Part of Linnaeus' innovation was the
grouping of genera into higher taxa that
were also based on shared similarities.

17. Linnaeus contribution to evolution
• In his early years, Linnaeus believed that the species was
not only real, but unchangeable.
• He abandoned the concept that species were fixed and
invariable, and suggested that some -- perhaps most --
species in a genus might have arisen after the creation of the
world, through hybridization.
• Linnaeus noticed the struggle for survival -- he once called
Nature a "butcher's block" and a "war of all against all".
However, he considered struggle and competition necessary
to maintain the balance of nature, part of the Divine Order.
• His book was banned by the church because of its sexually
explicit imagery.

18. George Louis Leclerc
Comte de Buffon
• 1707-1788 • Rejected divine plan
• Believed variation could happen
within species
• Recognized vestigial features that no
longer served a purpose.
• Defined species – if by means of
copulation two animals can
perpetuate themselves and their
likeness they should be considered
one species.

19. William Paley 1743 - 1805
• He rejected the early forms of evolution and
proposed Natural Theology.
• His idea was that everything was deliberately
designed and he used the eye as the center piece of
his ideas. He felt that the eye along pointed to an
intelligent creator.
• Because the design was perfect, Natural Theology
rejected the idea that it could change.

20. Darwin took Paley’s course
• In order to pass the B.A. examination, it was, also,
necessary to get up Paley's Evidences of Christianity, and
his Moral Philosophy. . . The logic of this book and as I
may add of his Natural Theology gave me as much delight
as did Euclid. The careful study of these works, without
attempting to learn any part by rote, was the only part of
the Academical Course which, as I then felt and as I still
believe, was of the least use to me in the education of my
mind. I did not at that time trouble myself about Paley's
premises; and taking these on trust I was charmed and
convinced of the long line of argumentation. Charles Darwin.
Autobiography

21. Fossils – the challenge to perception

22. Jefferson, who made wonderful discoveries of fossils
wrote: Such is the economy of nature that no instance
can be produced of her having permitted any one race
of her animals to become extinct.
In 1811 – Mary Anning, age 12
discovered the first
ichthyosaurus. It was such a
good fossil, that the argument
against them did not stand up.
So another idea was put forth –
these creatures had lived in
earlier creations – which had
been wiped out.

23. The next debate was the age of the
earth.

24. The debate once again was the
struggle between science and
religion
• Bishop Usher went through the Bible and
said that Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC at 9
AM was the day of creation.
• The law of superposition, Hutton’s basis for
Geology, the fossil layers, and finally the
radiometric aging allowed us to date the
beginning of the earth at 4.6 BY

25. Ages of the seafloor rocks

26. Richard C. Owen 1804 – 1892
Comparative Anatomy
Owen named “dinosaurs”
He compared teeth between
dinosaurs and modern reptiles
and announced that dinosaurs
were more advanced.
Because Lamarck held that
everything advanced towards
perfection, Owen felt this
backward movement in
reptiles undermined evolution.
He tried to create a new theory
and failed.

27. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
1744 - 1829
• He was the first to try and explain evolution.
• Simple forms constant arise from the non-living and
gradually evolve to become more complex.
• He felt that characteristics could be acquired during
life and then passed on to the next generation.
• He would believe that giraffes, by stretching to
reach the leafs would pass this tendency on and the
next generation would have a longer neck.

28. Charles Darwin’s first problem
• Charles Darwin came from a
church oriented family. He had
considered going in to the
ministry at one point in his life.
• He knew the church would react
negatively to his research and
ideas and thus he waited 20 years
to publish.
• The first nagging thought about
questioning the concept of God as
the complete creator of every
detail was brought about by
Parasites. He could accept
quick, painless death, but he
could not picture a benevolent
god creating death by parasites.

29. The Beagle
• Darwin signed on to
be the Naturalist on
the Beagle – an unpaid
companion to Captain
Fitzroy, because status
would not allow
Fitzroy to socialize
with his crew.

30. The voyage of discovery
1831- 1836
• The explorer Humboldt’s books had inspired
Darwin to want to travel to South America.
• He read Lyell’s new book on geology on the trip.
• The earthquake in Chile showed him the
dynamic earth.
• The finches in Galapagos provided the biological
observation that established the basis for natural
selection.

31. Darwin’s wake up call
• In 1858, 22 years after the Beagle, Darwin
experimenting with barnacles, studying
pigeons.
• The Lord Alfred Wallace sent him a
publication to review. Working in SE
Asia, Wallace had found the same thesis.
Two independent researchers came to the
same conclusion!!

32. Lord Alfred Wallace 1823 - 1913
• “Truth is born into this
world only with pangs and
tribulations, and every
fresh truth is received
unwillingly. To expect the
world to receive a new
truth, or even an old
truth, without challenging
it, is to look for one of
those miracles which do
not occur"

33. Darwin now had to publish and
present his paper along with
Wallace’s with very little public
attention, until the church
responded. Controversy gets the
public’s attention.

34. On the Origin of Species by Means
of Natural Selection, or the
Preservation of Favoured Races in
the Struggle for Life.
Charles Darwin, M.A.,
• I have called this principle, by which
each slight variation, if useful, is
preserved, by the term Natural Selection.

35. That many and grave objections may be advanced
against the theory of descent with modification
through natural selection, I do not deny. I have
endeavoured to give to them their full force.
Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe
than that the more complex organs and instincts
should have been perfected not by means superior to,
though analogous with, human reason, but by the
accumulation of innumerable slight variations, each
good for the individual possessor.

36. Nevertheless, this difficulty, though
appearing to our imagination
insuperably great, cannot be considered
real if we admit the following
propositions,
namely, -- that gradations
in the perfection of any
organ or instinct, which we
may consider, either do now
exist or could have
existed, each good of its
kind, -- that all organs and
instincts are, in ever so
slight a degree, variable, --
and, lastly, that there is a struggle for
existence leading to the preservation of
each profitable deviation of structure or
instinct. The truth of these propositions
cannot, I think, be disputed.

37. Did you know?
Darwin used descent with modification.
The term Evolution was coined by the
philosophy Herbert Spencer
and used by Thomas Huxley in his
defense of Darwin’s theory.
It meant:
A process of change in a certain direction.
Spence is also the man who coined:
Survival of the fittest!

38. Domestication – manipulated
evolution
• Man does not actually produce variability;
he only unintentionally exposes organic
beings to new conditions of life, and then
nature acts on the organisation, and causes
variability. But man can and does select the
variations given to him by nature, and thus
accumulate them in any desired manner. He
thus adapts animals and plants for his own
benefit or pleasure.

39. •Judging from the past, we may safely infer that not one living species
will transmit its unaltered likeness to a distant futurity.
•Of the species now living very few will transmit progeny of any kind to
a far distant futurity
•The greater number of species of each genus have left no descendants,
but have become utterly extinct.
•The common and widely-spread species, belonging to the larger and
dominant groups, which will ultimately prevail and procreate new and
dominant species.
•The living forms of life are the lineal descendants of those which lived
long before the Silurian epoch, we may feel certain that the ordinary
succession by generation has never once been broken, and that no
cataclysm has desolated the whole world.
•Natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all
corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards
perfection.

40. O. C. Marsh work on
horse Fossils
The most complete evolutionary
history we have is with the horse.
O. C. Marsh, a contemporary of
Darwin working in the US put together
one of the first great collections of
fossils in North America.
The result was an almost complete
record from the earliest ancestors to
days modern horse.

44. Chemical – Biological evolution

45. Evolution begins with the Genes
• allele = (n) a form of a gene which codes
for one
possible outcome of a phenotype

46. Three possible genotypes
• GENOTYPES • RESULTING PHENOTYPE
Homozygous Dominant Yellow
(YY) Yellow
Heterozygous (Yy) Green
Homozygous Recessive
(yy)
• where
Y = the dominant allele
for yellow &
y = the recessive allele
for green

47. Incomplete dominance
• GENOTYPES • RESULTING
PHENOTYPE
• BB = Homozygous Black Black Fur
BW = Heterozygous Grey Fur
WW = Homozygous White White Fur
• where
B = allele for black &
W = allele for white

48. Co-dominance
• GENOTYPES • RESULTING
PHENOTYPE
• BB = Homozygous Black Black Fur
BW = Heterozygous Black & White Fur
WW = Homozygous White White Fur
where
B = allele for black &
W = allele for white

49. How does this work for us?
Look at our blood types
• ALLELE • CODES FOR
IA Type "A" Blood
IB Type "B" Blood
i Type "O" Blood

50. Knowing what we do about alleles
here are the various combinations
with dominate, co-dominant and
recessive traits
• RESULTING
• GENOTYPES PHENOTYPES
I(A)I(A) Type A
I(A)i Type A
• I(B)I(B) • Type B
I(B)i Type B
• I(A)I(B) • Type AB
• ii • Type O

51. How do we go from genetic
variation to shifts in species?
• The alleles in the population will not change
• They will continue to cycle through the population
in different combinations until:
– Mutation changes a component.
• Mutations happen all the time, we know that there
are micro-mutations in all genetics and DNA
constantly through radiation, cosmic rays, etc.
They do not manifest themselves until factors
favor them.

57. The question is – where
are the missing links?
Critics are quick to say that if the species are
related, there should be intermediate stages in the
fossils and species.
Of course our hybrids demonstrate this in our pets
and our agriculture and our gardens, but nature
does not need that to demonstrate the process.

58. The success of transition
and evolution can be seen
in many smaller
organisms.