Many theories exist today about how the world came to be and the existence of species. Through my paper, I am going to show two of the most prominent theories that are believed by people today. The first theory I am going to explain is the Theory of Evolution. The second theory that I am going to show is Biblical Creation. In each of these theories, I will give examples of their beliefs and tell about the people who believed them or discovered them.
The definition of evolution is a change of gene frequency. The theory of evolution states that humans evolved from another species. From ancient Greece to at least the nineteenth century, it was believed that species were eternal and unchangeable as geometric figures and physical elements. A few early thinkers suggested that species evolve which was meant that one organism could change into another belonging to a different family.
The first main evolutionist was Cuvier, he had the idea of archetypes which was that all species had an ideal dorm and the job of science was to discover what that ideal form was by stripping away all of the accidental features. Then there was Owens who was a naturalist. He believed that all natural phenomena must be explained by nature. He claimed that he came up with the theory of evolution of species, but never mentioned transmutation until after Darwin.
Lamark who wrote Philosophie Zoologique theorized that simple organisms could become complex. His analogy was a tree in which a simple organism was created through spontaneous generation, which was at the trunk of the tree, and each generation became more complex and grew up the tree. He believed that organisms are forced to become more complex. His theory was called the escalator of being. He also had another theory the inheritance of inquired characteristics which is just as it sounds that offspring could inherit learned traits.
Darwin did not believe Lamark's theory of the escalator of being because Darwin believed that if all of the species died off the same spontaneous generation would confront the same habits.
