The idea that all organisms could be arranged in a great tree was VERY important for Darwin. In fact, it is the only figure in the entire text (some 700 pages). The quote and figure depict three major themes in evolutionary biology and highlight the source of conflict with Genesis:
- Just like the singular trunk of a tree, all life comes from a single common ancestor (you may have known this as the “primordial soup”). We now know these organisms were more like Bacteria than like humans, and RNA arose before DNA. (Primordial soup has been replaced with the less flavorful RNA world). Regardless, all evidence points to a single common ancestor – contrary to the independent origins of great whales, flying foul, cattle, etc.
- Things change. At its core, Darwinian evolution is “change in a population through time.” Darwin describes the growth of this great tree as “buds give rise to growth to fresh buds” – only the vigorous survive. Yet, Genesis tells us that these organisms were created as we know them today and they would perpetuate “after their own kind”, without change.
- Lastly, extinction happens. Darwin’s “overtopped branches”… “fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth” describes the process of extinction and fossilization. We now estimate from the fossil record that significantly more species have gone extinct than live on Earth today (1.5 million described, probably 10x that when you include those unknown to science). Yet, why would God create species that go extinct?
How do we reconcile Genesis and Darwinian evolution? Maybe God created evolution as a tool for filling the planet with diverse life forms? As I left for graduate school to embark on a career in plant evolution, my mom–a thoughtful literature buff always supportive of my endeavors–printed and framed this poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson entitled “Flower in the crannied wall”:
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
Here, Tennyson is talking to a flower in search of God. Somewhere in nature lies the explanation for God. This concept (theistic evolution or Christian Darwinism) specifically states that “evolution is a tool that God employed to develop human life.” Maybe it’s plausible for some. For me, predestination squelches my curiosity – what’s compelling about discovering something that someone (or something) already created? (I guess I wouldn’t make much of an archaeologist!)
