To start exploring the change in nature I want to explore both the Theory of Evolution and the Theory of Creationism. This is because by looking at the constant change in nature, I want to trace back not only the starting point from where change in nature originated from but also looking at the arguments for why change occurs, leading us to question is there a destination we are heading towards as change is continuous before change in nature stops. What is the point of survival? Only to die again? As I explore the Theories of evolution and creationism and the role they play in the change found in nature, I want to consider these questions as animals try so hard to survive but to be replaced soon with the new. Therefore I believe in my images I take I want to capture the spirit and essence of why people animals believe life is so worth of living.
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Charles Darwin was a British Biologist who proposed the Theory of evolution through natural selection. This theory composes of the idea that species change over time and give rise to new species whilst both sharing in one common ancestor. Natural selection allows for evolution to be possible because it bases its thesis on that resources in nature are limited and so competition for these resources will only be favorable to whichever species has the traits to survive. Reproduction will occur among these species and so the traits of past generations are adopted into the newer younger generations and increase in frequency. “…Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps.” (1). This idea fascinates me greatly because I am interested in exploring the ways in which the passing of the old into the new but how the new adopts the foundations from the previous generation. This links to the idea of freedom in nature because the limits in one generations death is the freedom for the next generation in terms of its ability to survive. This idea of a common ancestor between inter species includes all forms of nature from birds, bananas, fishes and flowers for example and so I want to capture the variety of methods of survival traits between the species, plants, the land and sea and other natural beings. “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” (2)
The statement “survival of the fittest” is arguably misrepresentative of natural selection and what it composes of. Individuals don’t survive, it is the traits of an animal that is found in the genes of the population and is passed through the generations is what survives. The keys to survival are the traits that essentially survive. Natural selection focuses more on the genes that code for desirable traits or characteristics that enable and ensure survival rather than the actions of survival in itself. Molecular biologist Michael Denton wrote, “Although the tiniest bacterial cells are incredibly small… each is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery… far more complicated than any machinery built by man .” [3] Darwin confessed, “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” [4]
- Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 162.
- Ibid. p. 158.
- Michael Denton, “Evolution: A Theory in Crisis,” 1986, p. 250.
- Charles Darwin, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,” 1859, p. 155.
Links
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/her/evolution-and-natural-selection/a/darwin-evolution-natural-selection
http://theconversation.com/explainer-theory-of-evolution-2276
https://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/
