Darwin's Theory Of Natural Selection

The origin of life has always been viewed as a mystery, for there are no true records about its incipience. Out of the countless different theories of how life began or developed, the most prolific ones would be Darwin’s theory of natural selection and evolution, which has generally been accepted as the most credible theory, and creationism, which stems from the religious belief that a higher being (God), created life and the universe. While we can neither be certain which is the truth, Darwin’s theory has the most evidence pointing to its credibility, while the intelligent design ‘theory’, a ‘scientific’ extension of creationism, has lesser so. Before I begin my essay proper, it is necessary to properly define the various concepts involved

In a population of individuals, variation in genotypes (in the form of alleles) exists due to random mutations arising in the genome of organisms, resulting in phenotypic variation from the unique combination of alleles of individuals. These unique combinations of alleles are then ‘tested’ by selection pressures, in which ‘beneficial’ alleles would confer organisms possessing that allele a higher chance of survival and reproduction; while ‘non-beneficial’ alleles either does not affect an organism’s survival and reproductive rate, or hinders it.

The eventual long-term effect of natural selection would be evolution, which is the change in genotypic and/or allelic frequencies in a population over a (usually very long) period of time. Evolution is driven by natural selection; however, it cannot be viewed as a ‘final’ outcome of natural selection. Rather, it would perhaps be more accurate to perceive evolution as an ever-continuing process led by natural

If all biological organisms were created perfect and as is in their modern form, then how can we explain the hardiness or the observable evolutionary changes of biological creatures? Consider Lenski’s long term experiment on Escherichia coli evolution: Lenski observed that one population of E. coli evolved the ability to utilize citrate in aerobic respiration, despite such ability not existing in wild-type E. coli due to the absence of a citrate transporter. Moreover, he was also able to analyse the exact genetic basis behind the evolution of the bacteria . The result of Lenksi’s result show how biological creatures can evolve through the development of a random beneficial mutation that is ‘fixed’ in a population by natural selection, allowing for the evolution of a population to occur. In contrast, if biological creatures are created perfect, as postulated by ID, then one can conclude that they cannot adapt, as we were not created to change, or evolve. This notion has clearly been proven to be