Ask a Teacher

Search



what exactly evolution
Evolution is the biological model for the history of life on Earth.  While some consider evolution to be equivalent to atheism, BioLogos sees evolution as a description of how God created all life.  Evolution refers to descent with modification.  Small modifications occur at the genetic level (in DNA) with each generation, and these genetic changes can affect how the creature interacts with its environment. Over time, accumulation of these genetic changes can alter the characteristics of the whole population, and a new species appears.  Major changes in life forms take place by the same mechanism but over even longer periods of time.  All life today can be traced back to a common ancestor some 3.85 billion years ago.
A cardinal principle of evolutionary theory is that all living things—including humans—are related to one another through common descent from the earliest form of life, which first appeared on earth about 3.85 billion years ago. How the first simple organisms arose is still a scientific mystery, but we know that they carried hereditary information and were capable of self-replication. Over eons, successive generations led to the marvelous diversity of living things that exist today. Common descent is supported by multiple independent lines of evidence, most notably the fossil record and the comparison of many species’ genomes.


comments powered by Disqus