Darwinian Fundamentalism Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Darwinian Fundamentalism - Term Paper Example However, this was not the crux of the battle that ensued between scientists and the church. Christians have traditionally believed that the origin of life traces back to the creation of Earth along with all the life forms by God, roughly 6000 years ago. Meanwhile, the scientists argue that the origin of life can be dated to millions of years ago, when life began to evolve by the process of natural selection. Besides the age of life-forms on earth, the most important clash between the two groups have been over the fact that according to the theory of evolution, life originated from completely inorganic sources, so to speak, from some complex chemical reaction of sorts, millions of years ago. In the course of this paper, I would like to examine the fundamental principles of both the sides also look into a rather interesting battle that has arisen amongst the scientists themselves. This concerns a Harvard Professor’s criticism certain supporters of the theory of evolution and his attempt to bring religion and science into coexsitance. Creationism ‘Creationism’ can be described in the simplest words as, a Doctrine or Theory holding that matter, the various forms of life and the world were created by god out of nothing, in the manner mentioned in the Genesis.1 The theory also stresses upon the centrality of God as the controller of everything. It describes God as omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. This is by far one of the few concurring ideas across different faiths which have represented God and his identity in different forms. They all subscribe to the belief that God has power over everything. They view him as the ‘Supreme Power’ who is both the creator and destroyer. According to the King James Bible, the Genesis, God created heaven and earth in the beginning, in a period of six days. Day 1: God said â€Å"let there be light†, and there was light. Day 2: God sad, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together u nto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. Day 3: And God said, let the earth bring forth grass and the fruit tree yield fruit. Day 4: And God created great every living creature. Day 5: And God said, Go forth and multiply each living creature after his kind: and it was so. Day 6: And God said, Let us make man in our image and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and every other thing that moved on earth. Creationists also stress on the divine nature of the Genesis and therefore place it on higher merit than Science. Some Creationists have gone to the extent of denouncing all forms of science and blatantly disregard all scientific evidences. The primary reason behind this strong dichotomy is the fact that Science in itself questions the existence of god for want of evidence and proof. Therefore, in most circumstances, there is a logical deduction that science and atheism are on the same page, so to speak. Creationists strongly back faith over the reasons given by science, stating that if it is in the bible then it must be true. This strong belief system has over time ‘evolved’ into a cult of sorts, which has adapted with the changing arguments of the evolutionists. For instance, by 1920, some of the creationists had managed to ban the teaching of Darwinism in schools, which gave rise to the famous ‘