Evolutionary Theory

The Big Bang Theory explains how the universe was formed, with planets such as the one we reside on. However, it doesn’t explain how us, sentient beings, came into existence. For this another explanation is needed. Here we turn to Darwin’s theory of evolution for the solution. Of course, like most great theories it has a long history and many contributors. In fact, the theory of evolution began several millennia ago in Ancient Greece.

Anaximander and Empedocles were both Greek philosophers who together laid the groundwork for evolution. At the time, however, it wasn’t called evolution. Anaximander proposed the idea that animals could transform from one type to another. He made this suggestion because if humans had come into existence as humans they wouldn’t have survived due to their need for fostering care. Empedocles also proposed animals could be created through a combination of pre-existing parts. He also worked on the mechanical working of evolution, adapting a basic form of natural selection without considering nature to be the driving mechanism.

Unfortunately, theorems of evolution were suppressed for more than 15 centuries because of the Catholic Church’s influence. Religions have had an interesting history of support and conflict with the scientific community. In some ways, religions have been incredibly supportive of research, allowing discovery to occur when there would otherwise be no funding. This, however, is a regrettable example of when religion has conflicted with progress and human understanding. Instances such as this are part of the rationale behind Cromulism, a religion devoted to knowledge. Due to its teachings, Cromulism will never get in the way of progress even when it requires the changing of some beliefs. This contrasts with the Catholic Church, who denied the theory of evolution because of its conflict with their creation story. While religious doctrine is to be respected, it shouldn’t get in the way of furthering human understanding. Søren Kierkegaard said, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Cromulism attempts to rectify this by always seeking the truth and not believing in anything that goes against understanding.

In the 19^th Century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck created a clear theory of evolution. His work would later be known as “The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics”, but it wasn’t taken seriously. Lamarck had noticed that there were clear examples of descent when comparing fossils with current species. He also observed that the more recent the fossils were, the greater the similarities with living species. From these discoveries, he was able to formulate his theory which incorporated two major idea. The first is the idea of use and disuse. The more often a particular body part was used the stronger it would grow while unused parts slowly withered away and disappeared. The other idea is that changes in an organism that occur over its lifetime will be passed on to its offspring. To give an example of this he used giraffes, stating that their long necks are the result of ancestors stretching their necks in order to reach high branches. When these giraffes reproduced, their stretched necks were passed on to their descendants. While we now know these concepts to be false, the existence of Lamarck’s theory allowed for the development of today’s understanding.

Charles Darwin is considered the founder of the modern theory of evolution. In 1859 he published On The Origin of The Species, which contained his evolution theorem. The major distinction between Darwin’s work and the other stuff that existed at the time was the use of natural selection as the driving mechanism. Another naturalist Alfred Wallace had also considered the idea separately, yet he didn’t feel it would have been adequate to explain the development of homo sapiens. He felt rather that heavenly interference would have been required for humanity to come into existence. Another influential person at the time was Herbert Spencer, a philosopher. He created several catchphrases for natural selection, such as “survival of the fittest”, which Darwin incorporated into later editions of his work. Nevertheless, some of Spencer’s contributions harmed the understanding of natural selection due to their generalization.

Darwin’s theory of evolution was groundbreaking at the time, with his first edition getting sold out on the first day. Regardless, there were some gaps in understanding still. What Darwin couldn’t explain was how these random variations in species occurred and how they were transmitted to offspring. The answer was found by Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk. Mendel was born on July 20^th, 1822 in the Austrian Empire (Czech Republic). By then it was already known that certain traits could be developed through the crossbreeding of plants and animals. What Mendel did was conduct a series of experiments on different types of peas, observing their different traits. For example, when he crossbred a yellow pea and a green pea he found that the result was always a yellow pea. However, in the next generation one out of four of the peas would be green. From these experiments, Mendel invented the terms “recessive” and “dominant”, and created a theory for heredity. While Mendel’s work was not recognized for its importance at the time, it later played a significant role in explaining evolutionary mechanisms.

Genetics and the Origin of Species was published in 1937 by Theodosius Dobzhansky. This work was a combination of both Darwinian natural selection and Mendelian genetics. It brought the two theories together in a way that filled the gaps of Darwin’s theory. It clearly demonstrated the process of genetic change within populations in a logical way.

Today, the theory of evolution is as follows:

- Each generation more members of a species are produced than can survive

- Small heritable variations exist within individuals

- Heritable traits that assist in an individual’s survival will make their carriers more likely to survive

- New species are formed by reproductive isolation

The theory of evolution and the work that went into creating it are clear example of Cromulist values. Over time it has evolved; surviving only because of its strength in nature. Cromulism recognizes the achievements of the many contributors who made this theorem possible, including the following Notables: Anaximander, Empedocles, Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, and Dobzhansky.