Darwin.

I wanted to take a few moments and talk about the late Charles Darwin, the author of "The Origin of Species." Darwin had 5 main theories. They are: 1- Evolution 2- Species Multiply 3- Gradualism 4- Natural Selection 5- Common Descent I place belief in all of these theories except the last example, Common Descent. That I take issue with. The account in Genesis, while it does rule out common ancestry for both plant and animal life alike, allows the space for the species that God created to change and evolve over the course of many years and through mating and mutational anomalies. How does Genesis rule this out?

It claims that God created these various species "after their own kind." Meaning, a broad number of species were walking, swimming, and growing all around the same time. Darwin was correct when he claimed that species that were not suited to the environment/climate either evolved, died off, or migrated to greener pastures. Where I find Darwin to be incorrect is his assertion that the processes of evolution over time looks more like a "cone," or "y" of sorts: common ancestors for plants and animals respectively. My assertion is that the species we see today came from a much larger gene pool than that. I posit that it wasn't a cone-shaped or "y-"shaped phenomenon (This is a description of Divergent Evolution. Convergent Evolution occurs when species that do not share common (recent, at least according to Darwin. I'm tinkering with this a little bit) ancestry begin to resemble each other due to pressures like environment or predation. Parallel Evolution occurs when species who do not share (recent) common ancestry evolve parallel to each other, like train tracks that never intersect).

The origins of plant and animal life were much broader than that. Only those suited to surviving an extinction-level event did so. And while I believe that humans have indeed changed over the course of time (Jesus is said to have been roughly 5 feet tall), I do not believe that we evolved from single-celled organisms, or even apes for that matter. Genesis insists that plant life came first. Then, simple sea organisms, whales, fish, and birds. Next, land animals. Some catostrophic event wiped out the dinosaurs. That's when humans suddenly appeared on the scene. When it was safe. This sequence of events allowed for plants and animals to thrive, complete with the food resources that they would respectively need. All in all, I find some of Darwin's assertions to be correct. I just think he goes too far and the theory falls short. As far as the "Missing Link" goes, you are bound to have trouble when you search high and low for something that doesn't exist. Bottom line? It is foolhardy to swallow this hook, line, and sinker.