In The Beginning...
NOTHING
...created the heavens and the earth.
Information
Evolution refers to changes in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection. Genes that are passed on to an organism's offspring produce the inherited traits that are the basis of evolution.
One Theorist: Charles Robert Darwin (1809 - 1882)
An English naturalist, who theorized that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process he called natural selection. The theory that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery remains the foundation of biology, as it provides an explanation for the diversity of life.
"It would have gratified me much if I could have sent satisfactory answers to your questions, or indeed answers of any kind. But I cannot see how the belief that all organic beings including man have been genetically derived from some simple being, instead of having been separately created bears on your difficulties. — These as it seems to me, can be answered only by widely different evidence from Science, or by the so called ``inner consciousness''. My opinion is not worth more than that of any other man who has thought on such subjects, and it would be folly in me to give it; I may however remark that it has always appeared to me more satisfactory to look at the immense amount of pain and suffering in this world, as the inevitable result of the natural sequence of events, i.e. general laws, rather than from the direct intervention of God though I am aware this is not logical with reference to an omniscient Deity. - Letter from Darwin to Down Bromley Kent 1866
Relevant Source: The Origin of Species
On the Origin of Species (published 24 November 1859) is a seminal work in scientific literature and arguably the pivotal work in evoluntionary biology. The book's full title is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, while for the 6th edition of 1872 the title was changed to The Origin of Species. It introduced the theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection.
"Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring....
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection." - Origin of Species
Confirmed Witness: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829)
Lamarck's contribution to evolutionary theory consisted of the first truly cohesive theory of evolution, in which an alchemical complexifying force drove organisms up a ladder of complexity, and a second environmental force adapted them to local environments through "use and disuse" of characteristics, differentiating them from other organisms.
All the acquisitions or losses wrought by nature on individuals, through the influence of the environment in which their race has long been placed, and hence through the influence of the predominant use or permanent disuse of any organ; all these are preserved by reproduction to the new individuals which arise, provided that the acquired modifications are common to both sexes, or at least to the individuals which produce the young.
- Lamarck theories of evoluntionary adaptations
What is Evolution's teaching on destination?