Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
|
Creation TheoriesWhere did it all begin? |
I don't have all of the answers. Nevertheless, questions about our origins are both interesting and important - certainly worth some attention. Admittedly, the universe can be a big and scary place. Still, that's no reason to fool ourselves with any old story that happens to make us feel good. So, the idea here is to present theories, on the origins of everything, that are based on thought and reason. And, please remember that it's okay if some theories are incomplete or don't match others - that's the nature of inquiry while we seek truth.*
|
So, I welcome your suggestions and constructive contributions. Although this page is not meant to disparage anybody's religion or belief system we must remember to avoid displaying unsubstantiated stories - no matter how ancient or ingrained they are in one's culture. Again, the best presentations are those backed by thoughtful research and consideration...
Oh yes, I also want to mention that this page stands alone on its own. That means that it is not connected to any
particular group, organization, web page or server. Wherever you happen to find it on the web (it's been floating
around from one server to another since early 1999) is because the price was right! [Note: as of the early 2000s this page actually resided on my own server after having been on Geocities and other free sites...]
|
*Columbia University professor of physics Brian Greene, in his book The Elegant Universe, put it this way; "Progress in science proceeds in fits and starts. Some periods are filled with great breakthroughts; at other times researchers experience dry spells."
|
Click Here for reader comments... |
|
|
Click Here for my page on Evolution... |
Bondi:
"First we are all struck with awe and wonder when we contemplate
the universe around us, whether we think of the depths of space in astronomy,
or of the incredible complexity of even the simplest forms of life, or of the
structure of mountains, or of ecology, or of the intricate web of human relationships.
Anyone not so impressed must be very insensitive."
Denver Museum of Nature and Science:
(I found this on display during a January 2002 visit)
"The proper scene for the slow brewing of life from non-life was the early Earth.
The Earth's conditions favored certain chemical combinations over others, and with the
passage of time a direction was set."
- Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, 1993
"If string theory is right, the microscopic fabric of our universe is a richly intertwined multidimensional labyrinth within which the strings of the universe endlessly twist and vibrate, rhytmically beating out the laws of the cosmos. Far from being accidental details, the properties of nature's basic building blocks are deeply entwined witht he fabric of space and time."
- Brian Greene, in his 1999 book The Elegant Universe
"The earth was initially very hot and without an atmosphere. In the course of time it cooled and acquired an atmosphere from the emission of gases from the rocks. This early atmosphere was not one in which we could have survived. It contained no oxygen, but a lot of other gases that are poisonous to us, such as hydrogen sulfide (the gas that gives rotten eggs their smell)."There are, however, other primitive forms of life that can flourish under such conditions. It is thought that they developed in the oceans, possibly as a result of chance combinations of atoms into large structures, called macromolecules, which were capable of assembling other atoms in the ocean into similar structures. They would thus have reproduced themselves and multiplied.
"In some cases there would be errors in the reproduction. Mostly these errors would have been such that the new macromolecule could not reproduce itself and eventually would have been destroyed. However, a few of the errors would have produced new macromolecules that were even better at reproducing themselves. They would have therefore had an advantage and would have tended to replace the original macromolecules.
"In this way a process of evolution was started that led to the development of more and more complicated, self-reproducing organisms. The first primitive forms of life consumed various materials, including hydrogen sulfide, and released oxygen. This gradually changed the atmosphere to the composition that it has today and allowed the development of higher forms of life such as fish, reptiles, mammals, and ultimately the human race."
- Summarized from Stephen W. Hawking's 1988 book; A Brief History of Time
"As a teenager reading African parasitology books in the medical library, I was boggled by the array of creatures equipped to take root upon a human body. I'm boggled still, but with a finer appreciation for the patnership. Back then I was still a bit appalled that God would set down his barefoot boy and girl dollies into an Edan where, presumably, He had just turned loose elephantiasis and microbes that eat the human cornea. Now I understand, God is not just rooting for the dollies. We and our vermin all blossomed together out of the same humid soil in the Great Rift Valley, and so far no one is really winning. Five million years is a long partnership."
- From Barbara Kingsolver's Novel; The Poisonwood Bible
"Everything about the origin of life on Earth is a mystery, and it seems the more that is known, the more complex the puzzle gets.
The dates have become increasingly awkward. Instead of there being a billion or so years for the first cells to emerge from a warm broth of chemicals, life seems to pop up almost instantly after the last of the titanic asteroid impacts that routinely sterilized the infant planet. The discovery last month of microbes that lived near volcanic vents formed 3.2 billion years ago confirms that heat-loving organizsms were among earth's earliest inhabitants."
- Nicholas Wade, Puzzle Deepens on Life's Origins, Gene evidence recasting theories (July 2000)
"We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes."
- Gene Roddenberry
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan
|
"The current record for distance, held by Japan's Subaru telescope, is for a galaxy whose light started its journey to Earth a billion years or so after the Big Bang. But Ellis suspects he has found not one but six galaxies from an astonishing half a billion years earlier still.
"A discovery like that would give astrophysicists their first real glimpse into a crucial and mysterious era in the evolution of the cosmos. Known as the Dark Ages of the universe, it's the 200 million-year period (more or less) after the last flash of light from the Big Bang faded and the first blush of sun-like stars began to appear. "What happened during the Dark Ages set the stage for the cosmos we see today, with its billions of magnificent galaxies and everything that they contain -- the shimmering gas clouds, the fiery stars, the tiny planets, the mammoth black holes. "When the Dark Ages began, the cosmos was a formless sea of particles; by the time it ended, just a couple hundred million years later, the universe was alight with young stars gathered into nascent galaxies. "It was during the Dark Ages that the chemical elements we know so well -- carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and most of the rest -- were first forged out of primordial hydrogen and helium. And it was during this time that the great structures of the modern universe -- superclusters of thousands of galaxies stretching across millions of light-years -- began to assemble."
|
"They weighed no more than a handful of peanuts, had large, saucer-like eyes and flitted about the treetops of humid Asian rain forests on feet no bigger than rice grains. Shy nocturnal creatures, they snapped up insects and nectar as quickly as their tiny bodies could digest them, all the while trying to avoid becoming a meal themselves for nightly predators such as owls."
- Alice Park on Eosimias, a 45 million -year-old fossil primate that may be the common ancestor to monkeys, apes and humans (Time Magazine, March 27, 2000 - page 84)
"For naturalism, fed on recent cosmological speculations, mankind is in a position similar to that of a set of people living on a frozen lake, surrounded by cliffs over which there is no escape, yet knowing that little by little the ice is melting, and the inevitable day drawing near when the last film of it will disappear, and to be drowned ignominiously will be the human creature's portion. The merrier the skating, the warmer and more sparkling the sun by day, and the ruddier the bonfires at night, the more poignant the sadness with which one must take in the meaning of the total situation."
- William James The Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 159
Links:
Back to Roger J. Wendell's Home Page...
Abbey |
About |
Blog |
Contacting
Me |
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Donate |
Guest
Book |
Home |
Site
Index |
Solutions |
Terms,
Conditions
and
Fair
Use
Copyright
© 1955 -