Theory of biological evolution and genetic diversity. Directions of evolution

reservoirs 25.09.2019
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Biological evolution is historical development organic world. The word "evolution" is Latin and in translation means - "deployment", and in a broad sense - any change, development, transformation. In biology, the word "evolution" was first used in 1762 by the Swiss naturalist and philosopher C. Bonnet.

Life originated on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. The predecessors of the first organisms were complex organic protein compounds that formed gelatinous lumps, the so-called coacervate droplets. These droplets, floating in the primordial ocean, were able to grow by assimilating from environment various nutrients. They broke up into child droplets, of which more perfect ones existed longer. The structure of coacervates gradually became more complicated, they formed a nucleus and other elements of a living cell. This is how the simplest unicellular organisms appeared.

Millennia passed, and the structure of living beings as a result of natural selection improved more and more. Some of these simple organisms have the ability to absorb the energy of the sun's beam and build in their body from carbon dioxide and water organic matter. Thus, the first unicellular plants, blue-green algae, arose.

Other living creatures retained the old way of eating, but primary plants began to serve as food for them. These were the first animals.

Later, as a result of evolution from unicellular protozoa, the first multicellular organisms appeared - sponges, archaeocyates (extinct invertebrate animals), coelenterates. Gradually, the world of plants and animals became more complex and diverse, they also populated the land.

According to their fossil remains - prints, fossilized skeletons - scientists have found that the older the organisms, the simpler they are. The closer to our time, the organisms become more complex and more similar to modern ones.

As a result of the development of the organic world, higher plants and highly organized animals appeared on Earth. From mammals - fossil apes - man descended.

Takova brief outline evolution of life on our planet.

Evolution is one of the forms of movement in nature. It continuously and gradually leads to qualitative and quantitative changes in living organisms, which are subject to the influence of both inanimate nature and other organisms.

The study of the causes and patterns of evolution in biology is carried out by evolutionary doctrine, a complex of knowledge about the historical development of living nature. The basis of this doctrine is evolutionary theory.

Even the philosophers of the ancient world - Empedocles, Democritus, Lucretius Carus and others - expressed brilliant guesses about the development of life. But many more centuries passed before science accumulated enough facts that allowed scientists to discover the variability of species, and then create a theory explaining the evolutionary process taking place in nature.

In the second half of the XVIII - first half of the XIX century. J. Buffon and E. J. Saint-Hilaire in France, E. Darwin in England, J. V. Goethe in Germany, M. V. Lomonosov, A. I. Radishchev, A. A. Kaverznev, K. F. Rulye in Russia and others created the doctrine of the variability of animal and plant species, which contradicted the teaching of the church about their creation by God and immutability. However, they did not consider the causes that lead to these changes.

The first attempt to create an evolutionary theory was made by the French naturalist J. B. Lamarck (1744-1829). In his work "Philosophy of Zoology" (1809), he outlined a holistic theory of the origin of species, but he could not correctly explain what are driving forces development of the organic world.

A truly scientific evolutionary theory was created by the English naturalist Charles Darwin. It was set forth in the book The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Breeds in the Struggle for Life, 1859). Darwin was able to determine the driving forces - the factors of the evolutionary process. It's an indefinite change, a struggle for existence, natural selection.

As a result of the struggle for existence, the organisms most adapted to the conditions of life survive, while the less adapted, weak ones are eliminated from reproduction or die. Due to natural selection in plants and animals, useful hereditary changes are accumulated and summarized, and new adaptations (adaptations) also arise.

The struggle for existence and natural selection are the most important driving factors of evolution, they are interconnected. They determine the further existence of the organism. In progress biological evolution the number of species of living organisms is also increasing. The formation of new species in nature - milestone in the process of evolution.

As a result of the evolutionary process, the genetic composition of populations changes, biocenoses and the biosphere as a whole are transformed.

Evolutionary doctrine and its core - biological evolutionary theory - the basis of modern progressive biology.

The historical development of wildlife occurs according to certain laws and is characterized by a combination of individual features. The advances in biology in the first half of the 19th century served as a prerequisite for the creation new science- evolutionary biology. She immediately became popular. And she proved that evolution in biology is a deterministic and irreversible process of development of both individual species and their entire communities - populations. It occurs in the biosphere of the Earth, affecting all its shells. This article will be devoted to both the study of the concepts of a biological species, and

History of development of evolutionary views

Science has gone through a difficult path of forming worldview ideas about the mechanisms that underlie the nature of our planet. It began with the ideas of creationism expressed by C. Linnaeus, J. Cuvier, C. Lyell. The first evolutionary hypothesis was presented by the French scientist Lamarck in his work "Philosophy of Zoology". English researcher Charles Darwin was the first in science to suggest that evolution in biology is a process based on hereditary variability and natural selection. Its basis is the struggle for existence.

Darwin believed that the appearance of continuous changes in biological species is the result of their adaptation to the constant change of factors. external environment. The struggle for existence, according to the scientist, is a set of interconnections of the organism with surrounding nature. And its reason lies in the desire of living beings to increase their numbers and expand their habitats. All of the above factors and includes evolution. Biology, which grade 9 studies in the classroom, considers the processes of hereditary variability and natural selection in the section "Evolutionary Teaching".

Synthetic hypothesis of the development of the organic world

Even during the lifetime of Charles Darwin, his ideas were criticized by a number of such famous scientists as F. Jenkin and G. Spencer. In the 20th century, in connection with the rapid genetic research and the postulation of Mendel's laws of heredity, it became possible creation synthetic hypothesis of evolution. In their writings, it was described by such as S. Chetverikov, D. Haldane and S. Ride. They argued that evolution in biology is a phenomenon of biological progress, which has the form of aromorphoses, idioadaptations affecting populations of various species.

According to this hypothesis, the evolutionary factors are the waves of life, and isolation. Forms of the historical development of nature are manifested in such processes as speciation, microevolution and macroevolution. The above scientific views can be represented as a summation of knowledge about mutations, which are the source of hereditary variability. As well as ideas about the population as a structural unit of the historical development of a biological species.

What is an evolutionary environment?

This term is understood as biogeocenotic. Microevolutionary processes occur in it, affecting populations of one species. As a result, it becomes possible occurrence subspecies and new species. Processes leading to the appearance of taxa - genera, families, classes - are also observed here. They belong to macroevolution. Scientific research V. Vernadsky, proving the close relationship of all levels of organization of living matter in the biosphere, confirm the fact that biogeocenosis is an environment for evolutionary processes.

In climax, that is, stable ecosystems, in which there is a large diversity of populations of many classes, changes occur as a result of coherent evolution. in such stable biogeocenoses are called coenophilic. And in systems with unstable conditions, uncoordinated evolution occurs among ecologically plastic, so-called cenophobic species. Migrations of individuals of different populations of the same species change their gene pools, disrupting the frequency of occurrence of different genes. So says modern biology. The evolution of the organic world, which we will consider below, confirms this fact.

Stages of development of nature

Scientists such as S. Razumovsky and V. Krasilov proved that the pace of evolution underlying the development of nature is uneven. They represent slow and almost imperceptible changes in stable biogeocenoses. They accelerate sharply during periods environmental crises: man-made disasters, melting glaciers, etc. About 3 million species of living beings live in the modern biosphere. The most important of them for human life is studied by biology (Grade 7). The evolution of Protozoa, Coelenterates, Arthropods, Chordates is a gradual complication of the circulatory, respiratory, nervous systems these animals.

The first remains of living organisms are found in the Archean sedimentary rocks. Their age is about 2.5 billion years. The first eukaryotes appeared at the beginning Possible options origin of multicellular organisms explain scientific hypotheses phagocytella I. Mechnikov and gastrea E. Getell. Evolution in biology is the path of development of wildlife from the first Archean life forms to the diversity of flora and fauna of the modern Cenozoic era.

Modern ideas about the factors of evolution

They are conditions that cause adaptive changes in organisms. Their genotype is the most protected from external influences (the conservation of the gene pool of a biological species). Hereditary information can still change under the influence of genes. It was in this way - by acquiring new signs and properties - that the evolution of animals took place. Biology studies it in such sections as comparative anatomy, biogeography and genetics. Reproduction, as a factor in evolution, is of exceptional importance. It ensures the change of generations and the continuity of life.

Man and the biosphere

Biology studies the processes of the formation of the Earth's shells and the geochemical activity of living organisms. The evolution of the biosphere of our planet has a long geological history. It was developed by V. Vernadsky in his teachings. He also introduced the term "noosphere", meaning by it the influence of conscious (mental) human activity on nature. Living matter, which is included in all the shells of the planet, changes them and determines the circulation of substances and energy.

directed change of any process, system, object, which is irreversible. This change always takes place in real (dynamic or historical) time. Evolution can be of various types: 1) from simple to complex and vice versa, 2) progressive and regressive, 3) linear and non-linear, 4) spontaneous and conscious, etc. As a rule, it occurs gradually, by accumulating a large number of micro-changes in the phenomenon. Directed changes play an important role not only in the biological, and even more so in the social sphere, but also in the physical and chemical processes as well as in the field of education. (See change, progress, revolution).

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Evolution

(Evolution). Ch. Darwin's book "The Origin of Species" (1859) caused heated debate between theologians and scientists. The defenders of Darwin raised it to the shield as a new word in science, with the help of which one can reinterpret the entire experience of the existence of mankind. Others called the theory of evolution a product of the devil, having no scientific value. But most people are in between. In this article, we will try to analyze the various theories that explain the origin of man and connect them with the biblical story of the creation of man, as well as present criticism of these theories.

liberal outlook. Darwin's contemporary O. Comte put forward an evolutionary theory of three stages in the development of religion: (1) fetishism is a separate will, the edges affect material objects; (2) polytheism a set of gods acting through inanimate objects; (3) monotheism is a single, abstract will that governs the entire universe. Liberal theologians have applied this theory to the interpretation of the Bible (the concept of "gradual revelation"). According to this theory, God revealed himself to people gradually at first as a cruel, ruthless OT tyrant who treated them as temporary members of the community with no personal value. But ideas about God changed through the suffering experience of the Babylonian captivity Israel comes to the intense expectation of a personal God, expressed in the psalms, and, finally, to faith in Jesus Christ, the personal Savior and Lord of every Christian.

The growth of high-level criticism contributed to the development of liberal exegesis. Commenting on the Pentateuch, liberals questioned not only the authorship of Moses, but also the authenticity of the biblical story of the creation of the world and the flood because of their alleged similarity with the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish. From now on, liberal theologians regard the Bible as a great literary monument and, along with necessary, vital truths, find in it many purely human errors and outdated teachings.

The Catholic theologian and anthropologist P. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) considered the theory of evolution in a biblical context. He tried to interpret the Christian gospel in terms of evolution. According to his concept, original sin is not a consequence of the disobedience of the first people, but rather the action of the negative forces of counter-evolution, i.e. evil. This evil is the mechanism of creation of the unfinished universe. God creates the world of the beginning of time, constantly transforming the universe and man. The blood and the cross of Christ are symbols of the new rebirth, through which the universe develops. Accordingly, Christ is no longer the Savior of the world, but the pinnacle of evolution, which determines its movement and meaning. Then Christianity is first of all faith in the gradual unification of the world in God. The mission of the Church is the relief of human suffering, not the spiritual redemption of the world. This mission is directly related to the inevitable progress generated by evolution.

Evangelical Christian Perspectives. Evangelical Christians consider the Bible to be the Word of God and the only infallible guideline for faith and conduct. However, there are at least four theories that are widely held among evangelical Christians relating biblical exegesis to the discoveries of modern science: (1) pre-Adamian theories, (2) "fundamentalist creationism", (3) theistic evolutionism, and (4) ) the theory of the gradual creation of the world.

Theories about people before Adam. These theories fall into two groups. The "interval theory" says that after the creation of heaven and earth and before the situation described in Genesis 1:2, there was a chronological gap, during which a great cataclysm devastated the earth. Jer 4:2326 is usually quoted in support; Isaiah 24:1; 45:18. According to this theory, early human remains testify to humans before Adam, whose creation is described in Genesis 1:1. The theory of two Adams states that the first Adam from Genesis 1 was the Adam of the bygone Stone Age, and the second Adam from Genesis 2 was the Adam of the New Stone Age and the ancestor. modern man. Thus, the whole Bible tells about the fall and salvation of Adam of the new Stone Age and his descendants.

"Fundamentalist Creationism". It includes all theories, according to Crimea, the creation of the world, described in Genesis 1, literally lasted twenty-four hours. These ideas suggest that the age of the Earth is 10 thousand years, and most of modern (if not all) organic fossils formed as a result of the Flood. They accept the chronology developed by Archbishop J. Asher (15811656) and J. Lightfoot, the edge being built on the assumption that the biblical genealogy was to serve as the basis of the chronology. Proponents of "fundamentalist creationism" reject any evolutionary development organisms and explain modern species differences by differences among the original organisms created by God. From their point of view, the theory of evolution is the culmination of an atheistic worldview, which undermines the authority of the Bible and casts doubt on the story of the creation of the world. Thus, any evolutionary approach to the Genesis 1 story is a blow to the Christian faith.

Theistic evolutionism. Proponents of this theory see Genesis as an allegory and a poetic presentation of spiritual truths about man's dependence on the Creator and falling away from God's grace. Theistic evolutionists have no doubts about the Bible's validity. They also acknowledge that God created man through a process of organic evolution. They believe that the Bible only tells us that God created the world, but does not reveal how He created it. Science has offered a mechanistic explanation for the origin of life in terms of evolutionary theory. But the two levels of explanation should complement each other, not contradict each other. Despite the need to abandon the historicity of the Fall, theistic evolutionists understand that the theory of organic evolution, embedded in the Christian understanding of the origin of life, cannot shake the fundamental Christian doctrine of original sin and the need for redemption.

The theory of the gradual creation of the world. This theory seeks to connect science and Scripture. Proponents of this view are trying to interpret Holy Scripture in a new way, focusing on new scientific discoveries. Without brushing aside irrefutable scientific data testifying to the ancient age of the Earth, they see in the traditional theory of "day-epochs" an image of a long period of time, and not a day consisting of 24 hours. They regard this interpretation as sound exegesis, in keeping with the ancient age of the earth.

Representatives of this trend are cautious in their assessments of the scientific theory of evolution. They accept only the microevolutionary theory, according to which mutations, formed as a result of natural selection, contributed to species diversity. They are skeptical of macroevolution (from ape to man) and organic evolution (from molecule to man) because these theories are not consistent with the well-studied mechanism of natural selection. Therefore, for supporters of the gradual creation of the world, modern differences in organisms are the result of species divergence and a consequence of microevolution, which began with prototypes originally created by God. There are at least three variants of the "day-age" theory: (1) the theory that "day" is a geological period, and each day of creation from Genesis 1 corresponds to a certain geological era; (2) the "discontinuous day" theory that each stage of creation was preceded by a day consisting of 24 hours; (3) the theory of overlapping "day-ages" each era of creation begins with the phrase: "And there was evening and there was morning", but partly coincides with other eras.

Criticism. liberal evolutionism. The influence of humanism, with its exaggerated analytical criticism, which sought to eliminate everything irrational and supernatural from the Bible, led to the fact that the Holy Scriptures began to be seen as simply a great religious book, and not the Word of God. The only truth of Holy Scripture with its obsolete traditions was considered to be human experience, which found expression in the Jewish aspirations of personal liberation, and completion in the person of Jesus Christ. However, the attempt to reduce the meaning of the Bible to the search for personal salvation was unsuccessful. Too often it has turned into a verbose sensibility that has nothing to do with the truth and historicity of the biblical narrative.

Liberal evolutionism placed a person in a closed space of relative ethics, where there were no moral criteria, with the help of which he could evaluate the moral values ​​that contradict each other, asserted by himself and other people.

Theories about people before Adam. According to some scholars, the "interval theory" is untenable for two reasons: (1) it is not supported by biblical evidence; (2) it was invented by believing geologists who sought to reconcile the apparent contradictions between the creation of light and plants before the sun appeared, and the antiquity of human remains. References to Jer 4:23; Isaiah 24:1 and 45:18, which supposedly testify to God's judgment on His creation before the events described in Genesis 1:2, is a big stretch. The context shows that these passages herald things to come. The word "was" in Genesis 1:2, which the supporters of this theory interpreted as "became", must be understood exactly as "was", since no other interpretation follows from the context. The word "refill" in Genesis 1:28 should be taken literally, and not "refill again" as this theory suggests, trying to depict the once inhabited Earth, the land was devastated. The theory of two Adams cannot be recognized as exegetically legitimate; besides, it contradicts the idea of ​​the unity of the human race, which is shared by all anthropologists and orthodox theologians.

"Fundamentalist Creationism". The main difficulty facing the supporters of this view is how to explain the ancient age of the Earth. Since atheistic theories of evolution deal with vast periods of time, representatives of this line of thought argue that the concept of an ancient age of the earth is a compromise with atheism that undermines the Christian faith. Therefore, they reject the principle of uniformitarianism ("the present is the key to the past") and all dating methods that confirm ancient origin Earth in favor of a global cataclysm. However, due to the lack of clear evidence of a Flood and an explanation for the amazing distribution of various animals on different continents, the Flood theory remains unproven. In addition, its proponents neglect the multitude of data confirming microevolutionary processes that can be observed in nature and in the laboratory. Many saw this biased approach to scientific discoveries based on a specific biblical exegesis, a continuation of the medieval obscurantism that engulfed the Church during the Copernican revolution.

Theistic evolutionism. If a person is a product random events natural selection, then theistic evolutionists must convince the secular world of the supernatural origin of man, created in the image and likeness of God, and of the truth of the doctrine of original sin. The allegorical interpretation of the creation story deals a blow to these two most important Christian teachings. Denying the historicity of the first Adam, this point of view calls into question the meaning of the crucifixion of Christ the Second Adam (Rom. 5:1221) and thus all Christian gospel.

The texts of Gen 1:12:4 are correlated with each other and are introduced in repeated phrases. Therefore, some theistic evolutionists talk about the "poetics" of these structures. However, this interpretation is unconvincing for two reasons. First, the creation story in Genesis 1:12:4 is unlike any known poetic work.

The Genesis story has no parallel in the vast biblical poetry and non-biblical Semitic literature. The command to keep the Sabbath is explained by the events of the first week of creation (Ex 20:811). An allegorical interpretation cannot become the actual basis of this commandment, and therefore it is unconvincing.

Eleven verses ending with the words: "This is the genealogy [life] ..." from the first thirty-six chapters of Genesis reproduce the historical picture of primitive and patriarchal life (1:12:4; 2:55:1; 5:26:9a; 6: 9610:1; 10:211:10a; 11:10b27a; 11:27625:12; 25:1319a; 25:19636:1; 36:29; 36:1037:2). The NT considers the events described in Gen. to be real^ 10:6; 1 Corinthians 11:89).

The creation of Eve (Gen. 2:2122) is also a mystery to theistic evolutionists who accept the naturalistic explanation of the origin of man from animals. Furthermore, Genesis 2:7 says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being." Although the creation process is not described in detail, in the early chapters of Genesis the idea of ​​creating man from inorganic matter and not from a pre-existing living form.

Heb. the word meaning "living soul" (Gen. 2:7) is identical with the expression from Gen. 1:2021,24: "... let the water bring forth reptiles, living creatures..." In the original, all these verses contain the word nepes (" soul"). The difference between man and animals is that man is made in the image of God, while animals are not. Therefore, Genesis 2:7 implies that humans became living souls, like all other animals. Therefore, these verses cannot be interpreted as if human beings arose from an animal being that preceded them.

Religious evolutionists put too much faith in the theory of organic evolution, which has not yet been reasonably formulated. In their desire to reconcile naturalistic and religious approaches to the question of the origin of life, they unwittingly show inconsistency, denying the miracle of the creation of the world, but accepting the supernatural character of the Christian gospel. This inconsistency is partly due to the notion that reality can be analyzed on many levels, each of which is more or less complete. Thus, another difficulty arises (from a holistic Christian point of view) reality breaks up into spiritual and physical. A similar dualism lurks in the theistic evolutionary approach to man as a product of natural evolution and a spirit that God "breathed" into him through a supernatural act.

Gradual creation of the world. Supporters of this position argue that, in addition to the scientific data that testify to the ancient age of the Earth, there is also biblical evidence proving that the "day" in Genesis can be understood as an indefinitely long period of time and that biblical genealogies cannot serve as the basis for an accurate chronologies were not intended for this.

To prove that the day of creation is a long period of time, the following arguments are given. (1) God created the Sun with the function of determining days and years only on the fourth day. Therefore, the first days did not consist of twenty-four hours. (2) In objection to the "day-age" theory, the fourth commandment is usually cited, which is not always justified, since this argument is based on analogy, not on identity. The establishment of the Sabbath year (Ex 23:10; Lev 25:37) seems to confirm that the Sabbath is a day of rest. Men must rest one day after six days of work, and the earth must rest one year after six years of harvest, for God worked for six "days" and rested on the seventh. (3) The words: "And there was evening, and there was morning ..." completing each "day of creation," cannot be an argument in favor of the theory of an ordinary day, consisting of twenty-four hours. The word "day" can mean a stretch of time of indeterminate length (Gen. 2:4; Ps. 89:14) and yet daylight opposed to night (Gen. 1:5); therefore the constituent parts of the "day" can also be understood allegorically (Ps. 89:56). Moreover, if these expressions are taken literally, then evening and morning together make night, not day. (4) The events of the sixth day of creation described in Genesis 2 seem to have gone on for an extremely long time. This time span is expressed in Heb. the word happaam (Gen. 2:23) "behold," which Adam utters. This word indicates that Adam waited a long time for his girlfriend, and finally his wish came true. This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that the word occurs in the OT in the context of elapsed time (Gen 29:3435; 30:20; 46:30; Ex 9:27; Jd 15:3; 16:18).

As for biblical genealogies, the famous biblical scholar W. Green analyzed them and concluded that they cannot serve as the basis for an accurate chronology. Other biblical scholars have confirmed this conclusion. Green found that in biblical genealogies only the most important names are given, and the rest are omitted, and the words "father" "begotten" "son" are used in a broad sense.

The traditional interpretation of the "days of the epoch" refers the days to different geological periods. However, the days of creation are difficult to correlate with real fossils. In addition, the creation of earthly greenery, sowing seed, and trees, bearing fruit, before creating animals, is a certain difficulty, because. many plants that bear seed and fruit need insects for pollination and fertilization. The theory of discontinuous and overlapping "day-ages" solves this problem by proposing the following hypothesis: fruit-bearing trees and animals were created at the same time. Modern model origin of the earth and solar system agrees well with the story of Gen. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe was expanding from a superdense state. Thirteen billion years ago, an explosion occurred, and in the process of gradual cooling of the Universe, interstellar matter was formed, from which galaxies, stars, the Earth and other planets arose. The events of the first three epochs of the creation of the world correspond to the modern theory of the origin of the Earth and planets from a dark gas and dust nebula. It contained water vapor, from which oxygen was released, which is necessary for plant photosynthesis.

All three of these models assume a process of change after the creation of each prototype of living organisms. Interpreting the seventh day of creation, when the Lord rested, the model of overlapping "day-ages" suggests the following hypothesis: the creation of the world was completed at the end of the sixth day (Gen. 1:31), and on the seventh day God rested. This concept is consistent with traditional views. However, according to the "discontinuous day" model, the creation of the world continues, and we live in an era that began on the sixth solar day and lay between the sixth and seventh days of creation. God continues to create, transforming inorganic and organic nature. The seventh day, the unconditional day of rest (Heb 4:1), will only begin after the birth of the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:18). This later view creates certain difficulties in interpreting Genesis 2:1: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them."

The problems that "gradual creationism" faces are not as insurmountable as those that confront other models, because it deliberately tries to connect science with Holy Scripture. But there are two more difficult problems. (1) How does the ancient origin of man compare with the highly developed civilization described in Genesis 4? Despite the absence of ancient remnants of material culture, physical anthropology suggests that man has probably existed on Earth for millions of years. Therefore, the first important problem how to explain the huge time interval between the emergence of man and human civilization, which arose over 9 thousand years ago. BC? Attempts to smooth over the difficulties include references to the civilization of Cain and Abel, described in the Bible extremely sparingly, and to the supposedly extinct civilization (Gen. 4:12), which perished due to sin. Human culture could reappear with the onset of the Neolithic, about 11 thousand years ago. (2) What is the extent of the flood? Due to the lack of clear evidence of a global flood, many "gradual creationists" accept the theory of a local flood that swept only Mesopotamia. The main argument of this theory is that there was a kind of metonymy; the ancient Eastern written records name a significant part instead of the whole (see Gen. 41:57; Deut. 2:25; 1 Sam. 18:10; Ps. 22:17; Mt. 3:5 ; John 4:39; Acts 2:5). Thus, the "universality" of the flood may mean the universality of the experience of those who spoke about it. Yes, Moses could not imagine the Flood, not knowing the true size of the Earth.

Conclusion. Liberal evolutionists have questioned the reliability of human moral judgments. Supporters of "fundamentalist creationism" adhere to certain theological traditions, krye belittle the objectivity of science. Theistic evolutionists surrender important theological positions to atheists and liberals by offering an allegorical interpretation of creation and the fall. Proponents of "gradual creationism" seem to be able to preserve the integrity of both Scripture and science.

R. R. T. Pun (trans. A. K.) Bibliography: R. J. Berry, Adam and Are: A Christian Approach to the Theory of Evolution; R. Bube, The Human Quest; J. O. Busweli, Jr., Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion; H.M. Morris, Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science; R.C. Newman and H.J. Eckelmann, Jr., Genesis One and the Origin of the Universe; E.K.V. Pearce, Who Was Adam? P.P.T. Pun, Evolution: Nature and Scripture in Conflict? B. Ramm, The Christian View of Science and Scripture; J.C.Whitcomb and H.M. Morris, The Genesis Flood; E.J. Young, Studies in Genesis One.

See also: Creation, doctrine about it; Man (his origin); Age of the Earth.

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EVOLUTION (in biology) EVOLUTION (in biology)

EVOLUTION (in biology), the irreversible historical development of wildlife. Determined by variability (cm. VARIABILITY), heredity (cm. HEREDITY) and natural selection (cm. NATURAL SELECTION) organisms. Accompanied by their adaptation to the conditions of existence, the formation and extinction of species, the transformation of biogeocenoses (cm. BIOGEOCENOSIS) and the biosphere as a whole.


encyclopedic Dictionary . 2009 .

See what "EVOLUTION (in biology)" is in other dictionaries:

    Has a double meaning. Usually, this term is understood in the same way as in philosophy, that is, it means the development of one form from another, and E. in the general biological sense is a synonym for transformism (see). But, in addition, the theory of E. ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

    - (in biology) the irreversible historical development of living nature. It is determined by variability, heredity and natural selection of organisms. Accompanied by their adaptation to the conditions of existence, the formation and extinction of species, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    - (from Latin evolutio deployment), in a broad sense, a synonym for development; processes of change (reim. irreversible) occurring in living and inanimate nature, as well as in social systems. E. can lead to complication, differentiation, increase ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

    The development of organisms from lower levels of organization of the living to modern highly organized forms; irreversible changes in the diversity and adaptation of species populations; expression of successive genetic transformations (changes); ... ... Ecological dictionary

    - (from lat. evolutio deployment), an irreversible historical process. living changes. From numerous undirected mutations as an elementary evolutionary. material, natural selection forms such combinations of features and properties that lead to ... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

    Changes in adaptive features and forms of adaptation of populations of organisms. The first consistent theory of E. b. was put forward in 1809 fr. naturalist and philosopher Zh.B. Lamarck. To explain the progressive development in nature over time, this ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

    Biological evolution, the historical development of organisms. It is determined by hereditary variability, the struggle for existence, natural and artificial selection. Leads to the formation of adaptations (adaptations) of organisms to their conditions ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    This article is about biological evolution. For other uses of the term in the article title, see Evolution (disambiguation). Phi ... Wikipedia

    Evolutionary doctrine (also evolutionism and evolutionism) is a system of ideas and concepts in biology that affirms the historical progressive development of the Earth's biosphere, its constituent biogeocenoses, as well as individual taxa and species, which can be ... Wikipedia

    Anthropogenesis (or anthroposociogenesis) is part of the biological evolution that led to the emergence of the Homo sapiens species, which separated from other hominids, great apes and placental mammals, the process of historical evolutionary formation ... Wikipedia

Books

  • The evolution of ontogeny, Ozernyuk N.D. The evolution of ontogeny is considered as the main problem of evolutionary developmental biology, since the evolutionary transformations of organisms are due to changes in their ontogeny. Integration…

Evolution in biology- irreversible historical development of living nature. You can consider the evolution of the entire biosphere and individual communities consisting of animals, plants and microorganisms, the evolution of individual systematic groups and even parts of organisms - organs (for example, the development of a one-toed limb of a horse), tissues (for example, muscle, nervous), functions (respiration, digestion ) and even individual proteins (for example, hemoglobin). But in the strict sense of the word, only organisms that jointly form populations of individual species can evolve.

Evolution has often been contrasted with revolution - rapid and significant change in scale. But now it has become clear that the process of development of living nature is made up of changes, both gradual and abrupt; both fast and lasting millions of years.

What are the characteristics of biological evolution?

First of all, continuity. From the moment of the emergence of life, the new arises in living nature not from scratch, not from nothing, but from the old. We and the first primitive microorganisms that arose about 4 billion years ago are connected by an unbroken chain of generations.


Hominid descended from a common ancestor

Not less than characteristic evolution - the complication and improvement of the structures of organisms from one geological era to another. At first, only microorganisms existed on Earth, then unicellular protozoa appeared, then multicellular invertebrate animals. The "Age of Fishes" was followed by the "Age of Amphibians", then the "Age of Reptiles", mainly dinosaurs, and finally the "Age of Mammals and Birds". In the last millennia, man began to conquer the dominant place in the biosphere.

Evolution is no longer surprising to us. But it was not always so. Although the ancient Greek sage Heraclitus said: "Everything flows", for people of the Middle Ages, and even closer to our time, wildlife seemed to be something frozen, motionless, once and for all created by the Lord God in the days of creation. Lone rebels were persecuted, and almost no one was convinced. Then, for example, a fact discovered by zoologists seemed to be a strong argument against evolution: cats whose mummies were in Egyptian tombs were no different from modern ones. Thus, a child who looks at a clock for one minute claims that the hour hand is motionless. After all, those few thousands of years separating us from the builders of the pyramids are no more than one second in the evolution of cats.

Nobody was convinced by the remains of fossil animals that no longer exist on Earth. At best, quite serious scientists believed that the biblical Noah did not take mammoths into his ark due to lack of space. Therefore, the term "antediluvian animals" was widely used. It was possible to speak purely theoretically about the possible change of animals and plants from generation to generation. But what are the mechanisms of these changes? What is the essence of the driving forces of evolution? Nobody knew this.

The French naturalist J. B. Lamarck in 1809 for the first time outlined in detail the first integral evolutionary concept in the work "Philosophy of Zoology". However, he explained the nature of evolution and its driving forces unsatisfactorily even for that time, and his concept (Lamarckism) was not successful. True, in one form or another, Lamarckian ideas about evolution come up every now and then, although real scientists do not take them seriously.

Since the time of Lamarck, biology has accumulated a huge amount of new facts that confirm the existence of the evolutionary process. In 1859, the English naturalist C. Darwin formulated the first scientific theory of evolution. The doctrine of evolution continued to develop. Unraveling the laws of heredity and variability and combining them with Darwinism gave modern theory evolution.

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