Evolution and Creation. What is the basic conflict between these two views. Explain how evolution forms an alternative hypothesis to the design hypothesis. Essay

Evolution and Creationism are two major ideologies that undoubtedly have large impacts on the way we live our lives and contribute greatly on the make up of who we are and what we do. Questions of our existence arise everyday, “Who am I?” “What is my reason for being?” “How were we created?” Philosophers have attempted to answer these questions for decades, and the two theories that have seemed to stand the test of time are Evolution and Creationism. I will compare these two philosophies and, by outlining the conflicts and criticisms of each, illustrate how they can not go hand in hand.
Firstly, to fully understand any criticisms or conflicts, you must first understand the theories. Evolution, at the basic level, is the belief that life resulted from natural processes only. The theory suggests that in the past there were extended intervals of stability which ended in a mass extinction and the sudden appearance of a new species. It is believed that this process occurred without the intervention of supernatural forces or deities.
Charles Robert Darwin can be referred to as the father of evolution as he was first to strongly and boldly suggest the idea in his 1859 book, titled The Origin of Species.
As Sober explains, Darwin’s theory has two basic ideas, the first of which being that all present day life is related, “that if we go back far enough in time, we’ll find a human   being who is an ancestor to both of us.” (Sober). This concept is identified as the “Tree of Life”.   The Second part to Darwin’s theory is Natural Selection. Darwin explained it to be the process by which only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics, through inheritance, in increasing numbers to succeeding generations, while those less adapted tend to be eliminated. A more common way of phrasing this would be the “survival of the fittest.”   When Darwin first released his theories of how human beings came into existence in the...