According to the scientific world view, life has been changing ever since the first cell appeared. Scientists believe that many of our modern organisms came from common ancestors. Having a common ancestor with another organism means that both evolved from the same ancient animal. The concept that inherited characteristics within a population change over generations is called evolution. Scientists think that the earth was formed over 4. 6 billion years ago. They have divided this time into three eras and what is known as Precambrian time.
Precambrian time is not known as an era because there is not enough known about it and there is not enough evidence of life to classify it as an era. What we do know about Precambrian time tells us that it was nothing like the Earth we know today. Earth had an atmosphere that was made up of gases like nitrogen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide. The earth was very chaotic and had common volcanic eruptions and violent storms. Since the atmosphere was very thin meteors and radiation could easily get through and hit the earth’s surface.
Scientists think that the first cells were created in the ocean by a mixture of radiation and chemicals in the water. These first organisms were prokaryotic cells called cyanobacteria. These cyanobacteria could use sunlight to make food and released oxygen which slowly began to create the ozone in the atmosphere. About 1 billion years later organisms became more advanced and formed into what we know as eukaryotes. Precambrian time makes up 88% of the time scientists think the earth has existed and ended about 543 million years ago. Following Precambrian time came the first classified era, the Paleozoic era.
The word “Paleozoic” means ancient life in Greek. Scientists named the first era this because they thought this was the earliest life until they found even more ancient fossils. In this era we begin to see more complex organisms and even some that we still have today. Scientists have found fossils from the Paleozoic era that include snails, clams, squids, and trilobites. This era is where the first animals with backbones appeared. During this era, plants and animals began to colonize land unlike before when most organisms lived in the oceans. At the end of the Paleozoic era, reptiles and some insects appeared.
Many plants like giant ferns, club mosses, and conifers began to grow in this era. An era officially ends with a mass extinction. The Paleozoic era ended with the largest mass extinction known of. Almost 90% of the life in the era was wiped out. Many marine animals such as the trilobites were made extinct at the end of this era. The Paleozoic era ended around 248 million years ago. The next era was the Mesozoic era. The Mesozoic era is commonly known as the age of reptiles because of the dominating reptiles and dinosaurs in that era. When most people think of prehistoric time, they think of dinosaurs roaming the earth.
What they are thinking of is the Mesozoic era. There were many different types of species of dinosaurs including ones that scientists think are the ancestors of birds. During this era conifers formed large forests and later in the era flowering plants began to grow. The mass extinction of the dinosaurs is what ended the age of reptiles. This is when most of the dinosaurs were killed. Scientists believe the mass extinction was created by a giant meteor hitting the earth. When the meteor hit, a large cloud of dust supposedly rose and created a chain reaction of animals dying. 65 million years ago, the Mesozoic era ended.
The last and current era is the Cenozoic era. This era is called the age of mammals. Life in this era ranges from neanderthals, to mammoths, to our current humans and animals. Many things have occurred during this era. Scientists think the evolution of humans occurred during this era. They believe that humans evolved from primates. The ice age is also believed to have happened during this time. The Cenozoic era is still going and no one knows when it will end. There are many different beliefs of how the earth was created and how life advanced. One belief is called microevolution.
Microevolution is the idea of minor evolutionary change over a short period of time. This is the belief of the Christian world view. This is called New Earth. New Earth was created 7,000 years ago and was made by God in seven days. New Earth is based on the Bible. The fact that microevolution occurs over a short period of time is very important to the Christian world view. Since New Earth was created 7,000 years ago, there is not possibly enough time for macroevolution to have happened. Another belief is called macroevolution. Macroevolution is the idea of major evolutionary change over a long period of time.
Macroevolution is where new species are created through adaptations and changes. This is the base of the scientific world view or Old Earth. Scientists think the world was created over 4. 6 billion years ago since macroevolution takes a very long time. The scientific world view states that the world was created in the Big bang and that ever since then life has gone from a singular cell to the innumerable species we have currently. Christians believe that God created humans during the week of creation, but scientists think that humans evolved from primates.
Microevolution is changes and adaptations within a species. For example the finches that Charles Darwin observed. He saw that the same species of finches had different shaped beaks. This was because of the different diets of the birds on several islands. Macroevolution is adaptions and changes into a new species. Macroevolution includes events like primates adapting into apes and chimpanzees which later evolved into humans. Christians believe that God created all of the species and do not believe in common ancestry like the scientific worldview states.
Microevolution and macroevolution are two very different views held by many people all over the world. Since we as Christians believe God created the earth and all the life in it, we are constantly running into people that do not believe what we do and are arguing with us. One issue that is always coming up is the different beliefs on the extinction of dinosaurs. Scientists believe that there was a meteor that hit the earth, but Christians believe there was a flood. The meteor theory explains that when a ginormous meteor hit, a large cloud of dust blocked out the sun.
With the lack of sunlight, all of the plant light supposedly died and started the chain reaction that killed the dinosaurs. Christians believe that when God became angry with the wicked people of the earth, he flooded the world to kill all life that was not on Noah’s boat. Since God told Noah to build a boat about 450 feet long and 75 feet wide, there was not enough room to house two of each species of dinosaur like Noah was instructed to do with the rest of the animals. Christians believe that the dinosaurs died in the flood. Another controversy is the layers of fossils in the earth.
Scientists believe that the layers were created over time. They think that the deeper the fossils are the older the animal is. This is how they classify organisms into the different eras and periods. Christians believe that the flood is what created the layers of dirt. When the entire world was covered in water, dead animal remains that were heavier settled in the bottom with large rocks and some dirt. The lighter and smaller remains settled in next with the majority of the dirt. Above that was all of the uprooted plants, which created a surface layer.
This process is what created the different layers that scientists observe today. In school we all learn about evolution no matter our beliefs. We as Christians learn about evolution so that we can know what we are arguing against. If someone comes to you and asks you why you believe in the Bible instead of the scientific worldview, you need to know about both sides to properly explain your beliefs. Many times Christians must explain to others about their beliefs just as the Bible calls us to. Bill Nye and Ken Ham had a debate about evolution, how Earth was created, and how the mass extinction of dinosaurs happened.
During this debate Ken Ham makes some very good points about the Christian view. He said, “The creation/evolution debate is really a conflict between two philosophical worldviews based on two different accounts of origins or historical scientific beliefs. ” I think that this describes the conflict very well. Ken Ham is the president of an organization called Answers in Genesis and defends the Christian view in this debate. Ken ham also said, “If you believe in the millions of years earth, you can be a Christian because salvation is based on faith in Christ, not Genesis.
But you have a problem. Because how do you explain death before the fall? ” and, “God is necessary for science. ” We can see God in science just as he said. While there are many differences between worldviews and opinions, we are all God’s children and I do not believe he would want us to be constantly fighting over how something happened that none of us even witnessed. Everything, even this can be an opportunity to bring others to Christ. The Bible tells us to spread the word, whether it be through the Bible, a missionary trip, or science, it is what we as Christians are called to do.