biological evolution. What is evolution in biology? Driving Forces, Laws, Examples

The historical development of wildlife occurs according to certain laws and is characterized by a combination of individual features. The successes of biology in the first half of the 19th century served as a prerequisite for the creation of a new science - evolutionary biology. She immediately became popular. And she proved that evolution in biology is a deterministic and irreversible process of development of both individual species and their entire communities - populations. It occurs in the biosphere of the Earth, affecting all its shells. This article will be devoted to both the study of the concepts of a biological species, and

History of development of evolutionary views

science passed hard way formation of worldview ideas about the mechanisms underlying the nature of our planet. It began with the ideas of creationism expressed by C. Linnaeus, J. Cuvier, C. Lyell. The first evolutionary hypothesis was presented by the French scientist Lamarck in his work "Philosophy of Zoology". The English researcher Charles Darwin was the first in science to suggest that evolution in biology is a process based on hereditary variability and natural selection. Its basis is the struggle for existence.

Darwin believed that the appearance of continuous changes in biological species is the result of their adaptation to the constant change of environmental factors. The struggle for existence, according to the scientist, is a combination of the relationship of the organism with the surrounding nature. And its reason lies in the desire of living beings to increase their numbers and expand their habitats. All of the above factors and includes evolution. Biology, which grade 9 studies in the classroom, considers the processes of hereditary variability and natural selection in the section "Evolutionary Teaching".

Synthetic hypothesis of the development of the organic world

Even during the lifetime of Charles Darwin, his ideas were criticized by a number of such famous scientists as F. Jenkin and G. Spencer. In the 20th century, in connection with the rapid genetic research and the postulation of Mendel's laws of heredity, it became possible to create a synthetic hypothesis of evolution. In their writings, it was described by such as S. Chetverikov, D. Haldane and S. Ride. They argued that evolution in biology is a phenomenon of biological progress, which has the form of aromorphoses, idioadaptations affecting populations various kinds.

According to this hypothesis, the evolutionary factors are the waves of life, and isolation. Forms of the historical development of nature are manifested in such processes as speciation, microevolution and macroevolution. The above scientific views can be represented as a summation of knowledge about mutations, which are the source of hereditary variability. As well as ideas about the population as a structural unit of the historical development of a biological species.

What is an evolutionary environment?

This term is understood as biogeocenotic. Microevolutionary processes occur in it, affecting populations of one species. As a result, the emergence of subspecies and new biological species becomes possible. Processes leading to the appearance of taxa - genera, families, classes - are also observed here. They belong to macroevolution. Scientific research V. Vernadsky, proving the close relationship of all levels of organization of living matter in the biosphere, confirm the fact that biogeocenosis is an environment for evolutionary processes.

In climax, that is, stable ecosystems, in which there is a large diversity of populations of many classes, changes occur as a result of coherent evolution. in such stable biogeocenoses are called coenophilic. And in systems with unstable conditions, uncoordinated evolution occurs among ecologically plastic, so-called cenophobic species. Migrations of individuals of different populations of the same species change their gene pools, disrupting the frequency of occurrence of different genes. Thinks so modern biology. The evolution of the organic world, which we will consider below, confirms this fact.

Stages of development of nature

Scientists such as S. Razumovsky and V. Krasilov proved that the pace of evolution underlying the development of nature is uneven. They represent slow and almost imperceptible changes in stable biogeocenoses. They are sharply accelerated during periods of environmental crises: man-made disasters, melting glaciers, etc. About 3 million species of living beings live in the modern biosphere. The most important of them for human life is studied by biology (Grade 7). The evolution of Protozoa, Coelenterates, Arthropods, Chordates is a gradual complication of the circulatory, respiratory, and nervous systems of these animals.

The first remains of living organisms are found in the Archean sedimentary rocks. Their age is about 2.5 billion years. The first eukaryotes appeared at the beginning Possible options The origin of multicellular organisms is explained by the scientific hypotheses of I. Mechnikov's phagocytella and E. Getell's gastrea. Evolution in biology is the path of development of wildlife from the first Archean life forms to the diversity of flora and fauna of the modern Cenozoic era.

Modern ideas about the factors of evolution

They are conditions that cause adaptive changes in organisms. Their genotype is the most protected from external influences (the conservation of the gene pool of a biological species). Hereditary information can still change under the influence of genes. It was in this way - by acquiring new signs and properties - that the evolution of animals took place. Biology studies it in such sections as comparative anatomy, biogeography and genetics. Reproduction, as a factor in evolution, is of exceptional importance. It ensures the change of generations and the continuity of life.

Man and the biosphere

Biology studies the processes of the formation of the Earth's shells and the geochemical activity of living organisms. The evolution of the biosphere of our planet has a long geological history. It was developed by V. Vernadsky in his teachings. He also introduced the term "noosphere", meaning by it the influence of conscious (mental) human activity on nature. Living matter, which enters into all the shells of the planet, changes them and determines the circulation of substances and energy.

The natural phenomenon of changes in populations, species, higher taxa, biocenoses, flora and fauna, genes and traits over time during the history of the Earth.

Scientific theories of evolution explain how evolution occurs, what are its mechanisms.

general characteristics

Strictly speaking, biological evolution is the process of change over time in the hereditary characteristics, or behavior, of a population of living organisms. Hereditary milestones are encoded in the organism's genetic material (usually DNA). Evolution, according to the synthetic theory of evolution, is primarily the result of three processes: random mutations of genetic material, random genetic deviation (eng. Genetic drift) and not random natural selection within groups and species.

Natural selection, one of the processes that governs evolution, is the result of differences in the chances of reproduction between individuals in a population. This necessarily follows from the following facts:

• Natural, hereditary variation exists within groups and among species
• Organisms of overbreeding (the number of offspring exceeds the limit of guaranteed survival)
• Organisms with excellent ability to survive and regenerate
• In any given generation, those that reproduce successfully are sure to pass on their hereditary chichi to the next generation, while unsuccessful reproducers do not.

If properties increase the evolutionary fitness of the individuals who carry them, then those individuals are more likely to survive and reproduce than other organisms in the population. This way they pass on more copies of successful hereditary traits to the next generation. A corresponding decrease in fitness due to harmful qichi leads to their creation. Over time, this can lead to adaptation: the gradual accumulation of new ones (and the persistence of existing ones) that generally adapt the population of living organisms to their environment and ecological niche.

Although natural selection not accidental in its form of action, other capricious forces have a strong influence on the process of evolution. In sexually reproducing organisms, random genetic variation results in hereditary ones that become fairly common simply by coincidence and random mating. This aimless process can be influenced by natural selection in certain situations (especially in small groups).

In different environments, natural selection, random genetic variations, and a bit of randomness in the mutations that appear and are stored can cause different groups (or parts of a group) to evolve into different directions. With enough disagreement, two groups of sexually reproducible organisms can become distinct enough to form a separate species, especially if the ability to interbreed between the two groups is lost.

Experiments show that all living organisms on Earth have a common ancestor. This conclusion was made based on the common presence of L-amino acids in proteins, the presence of a common genetic code in all living things, the possibility of classifying by inheritance into categories, nesting, homology of DNA sequences and the commonality of the most common biological processes.

Although the first references to the idea of ​​evolution are ancient, recent, modern form she acquired in the writings of Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin in their joint paper at the Linnean Society in London (Linnean Society of London) and later in Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). In the 1930s Synthetic theory evolution combined evolutionary theory with the genetics of Gregor Mendel.

The evolution of organisms occurs due to changes in hereditary traits. For example, the color of a person's eyes is a hereditary trait that an individual receives from his parents. Hereditary traits are controlled by genes. The totality of genes of one organism is its genotype.

The totality of all traits that form the structure and behavior of an organism is called the phenotype. These signs arise as a result of the interaction of the genotype of this organism with environmental conditions. That is, not every phenotypic trait of an organism is inherited. For example, sunburn is due to the interaction of the human genotype with sunlight, so sunburn does not subside. In general, people tan in different ways, which follows from their genotype. For example, some people have such a hereditary trait as albinzyme. Albinos do not tan and are very sensitive to solar radiation - they easily get sunburned.

Reasons for evolution

Matrix copying with errors

Life on Earth is based on the process of copying nucleic acid molecules - DNA and RNA. The copying process is carried out by the matrix principle of complementarity: one nucleic acid molecule can form a paired one for itself, and a molecule is read from this paired molecule that is identical to the original one. Thus, DNA and RNA molecules are capable of unlimited reproduction.

When copying, errors will inevitably occur due to the imperfection of the replication system. Through these errors, DNA and RNA copies contain small differences, which, however, increase over time. This process of self-creation with changes is called convariant reduplication.

Certain inanimate systems, such as crystals or some chemical cycles, are capable of unlimited reproduction with errors. But the living is different in that it can pass these errors unchanged to the next generations. These errors, or mutations, practically do not change the physicochemical properties of nucleic acid molecules, but affect the information read from them by living organisms. Thus, living organisms show heredity and variability of their traits, which are caused, respectively, by copying and mutation in nucleic acid molecules.

Homeostasis and stability of ontogeny

The constant reproduction of DNA with errors leads to the fact that the genetic information present in each molecule changes greatly over time. Modern living organisms have systems of protection against excessive changes in the sequence of nucleotides of the DNA molecule. These include repair enzymes, suppressors of mobile elements of the genome, antiviral defense mechanisms, etc.

Nevertheless, the genes are still passed on to the next generation with some changes, as a result of which the population of living organisms of the same species usually does not contain individuals in which the entire DNA sequence is the same. At the same time, phenotypic variability is often less than genetic variability, since interactions between different genes in ontogeny suppress the influence of changes in individual genes. Thus, multicellular organisms achieve stability individual development, leads to the preservation of the species norm.

Selective survival and reproduction

RNA and DNA molecules, as well as living organisms, reproduce with different efficiency depending on own properties and conditions environment. Organisms can die before they reach the time of reproduction, and those that survive leave varying numbers of offspring. Those organisms that survived and reproduced efficiently were able to do this through two groups of reasons: the conformity of their gene variants to environmental conditions or a combination of circumstances not related to the “quality” of the alleles. According to the influence of the first group on the distribution of alleles in the population is described by the concept of natural selection, and the second group - by the concept of genetic drift.

Natural selection

Natural selection is selective survival (long-term survival) and reproduction of the most adapted to environmental conditions individuals in a population. The more adapted a plant or animal is, the more likely it is to survive to the reproductive period, and also the more offspring it will leave. Fitness depends on the presence in the genotype of an individual of alleles of genes that promote survival and reproduction. Since all organisms in a population have different genotypes, under stable conditions, the number of carriers of gene alleles that are more favorable under these conditions will increase in generations.

In addition, environmental conditions create competition for survival and reproduction between organisms. As such, organisms that possess alleles that give them an advantage over their competitors pass those alleles on to their offspring. Alleles that do not provide such an advantage are not passed on to the next generation.

genetic drift

Genetic drift is a process of changes in allele frequency that is caused by causes that are not related to the influence of alleles on the fitness of individuals. Therefore, genetic drift is referred to as a neutral mechanism for the evolution of genes and populations. The relationship between the influence of natural selection and genetic drift in a population varies depending on the force of selection and the effective size of the population (the number of individuals capable of reproduction). Natural selection usually plays a large role in large populations, and genetic drift prevails in small ones. The predominance of genetic drift in small populations can even lead to the fixation of deleterious mutations. As a result, a change in population size can significantly change the course of evolution. the effect bottle neck, when the population decreases sharply and as a result, genetic diversity is lost, leads to greater population homogeneity.

General course of evolution

The first traces of life on Earth are dated 3.5-3.8 billion years ago. These are the remnants of prokaryotic life - stromatolites. About 3 billion years ago, the first photosynthetics appeared, which were cyanobacteria. The first eukaryotes appeared about 1.6-1.8 billion years ago. This leads to an "oxygen catastrophe" - a sharp increase in the concentration of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. Multicellular eukaryotes arose many times in different groups However, the first reliable fossils are about 750 million years ago (Cryogenian), and the appearance of a diverse oceanic biota is associated with the Vendian period (Ediacaran biota, about 600 million years ago). The appearance of skeletal animals and their rich remains occurred in the Cambrian period about 550-520 million years ago. Then came the majority modern types animals.

In the Silurian period, plants first came to land. In the Devonian, the first amphibians and arthropods settled on land. In the Permian period, reptiles appeared that dominated the Earth throughout the Mesozoic era. Several groups of therapsid reptiles further developed into mammals. In the Cretaceous, birds appeared and flowering plants began to flourish. In the Cenozoic era, mammals dominated, and insects also flourished. In the Anthropogen, one of the groups of primates, the hominids, gave rise to human evolution. In the Pleistocene-Holocene, man becomes a geological force that influences the evolution of the entire biosphere.

properties of evolution

The course of the evolution of life reveals several end-to-end patterns that are objective and often described mathematically. Evolutionary biology studies additional mechanisms of evolution or new possibilities for implementing the initial principles, which will allow us to fundamentally understand the essence of these patterns. The main properties of evolution are as follows: the emergence of organisms adapted to the environment, morphological and functional progress, the emergence of new organs and structures (emergence), the transition to sexual reproduction, the extinction of species, and the growth of biodiversity.

Adaptation

Modern species appear to be well adapted to the conditions of the environment in which they exist. At the same time, adaptations are limited to the environment where they are usually used: when an organism moves to a new environment, it often becomes completely unadapted, or at least less adapted than the "indigenous" inhabitants of other conditions. Before the emergence of the evolutionary picture of the world, a fairly clear correspondence of the properties of an organism to the conditions of its “native” environment amazed researchers so much that they considered it to be a consequence of the action of supernatural forces. However, adaptation is almost a necessary consequence of evolution, as organisms less adapted to environmental conditions contribute less and less to the genetic diversity of a population due to natural selection. At the same time, the origin of the adaptations themselves does not necessarily depend on selection, but may be a side effect of other adaptations or a combination of circumstances in general (a consequence of genetic drift).

Progress and autonomy

In the course of evolution, nuclear-free bacterial cells give rise to complex eukaryotic cells. Eukaryotes subsequently acquire multicellularity, form tissues and organs. Animals develop nervous system, have complex behavior that allows them to survive in many environments. Man, as the pinnacle of animal evolution, has reached the ability to live in any environment, including extraterrestrial.

emergence

In the course of evolution, there is often a recombination of parts of organisms and genes, a change in the function of old structures. However, some processes and parts of organisms arose for the first time. Photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, DNA replication proteins, translation apparatus, fish scales, and the like.

Dioecious

The first animals were hermaphrodites, and among the higher hermaphrodites there are almost none.

Sex and recombination

In asexual organisms, genes are inherited together (they vaccinated) and do not mix with the genes of other individuals during reproduction. The descendants of the same reproductive organisms contain a random mixture of chromosomes of their parents due to independent sorting. During the related process of homologous recombination, sex organisms exchange DNA between two homologous chromosomes. Recombination and independent sorting do not change allele frequencies, but change their associativity with each other, producing offspring with new combinations of alleles. Sex generally increases genetic variation and can increase the rate of evolution. However, asexuality may have advantages under certain conditions, as it has re-evolved in some organisms. Asexuality may allow two sets of alleles of the divergeuvate genome and, as a result, lead to the emergence of new features. Recombination allows equal alleles that are together to be inherited independently. However, the frequency of recombinations is low (about two cases per chromosome per generation). As a result, genes located side by side on the same chromosome are not always shuffled apart by the process of genetic recombination and tend to be inherited together. This phenomenon is called gene linkage. Gene linkage is assessed by measuring the frequency of two alleles on the same chromosome (linkage disequilibrium measurement). The set of alleles that normally decline together is called a haplotype. It has importance when one of the alleles of a certain haplotype provides great advantage in the struggle for existence: positive natural selection will lead to selective purge (English) Selective sweep), which will lead to the fact that the frequency of other alleles of this haplotype will also increase. This effect is called genetic hitchhiking. When alleles cannot be separated by recombination (for example, in the mammalian Y chromosome), then harmful mutations accumulate (cm. Muller's ratchet). By changing combinations of alleles, sexual reproduction leads to the removal of harmful and the spread of beneficial mutations in the population. In addition, recombination and sorting of genes can provide organisms with new beneficial combinations of genes. But this positive effect is balanced by the fact that sex reduces the rate of reproduction. (cm. The evolution of sexual reproduction) and can cause the destruction of beneficial combinations of genes. The reasons for the evolution of sexual reproduction are still not entirely clear, and this issue is still an active area of ​​research in the field of evolutionary biology. It stimulated new ideas about the mechanisms of evolution, such as the Red Queen hypothesis.

Extinction

In the history of the Earth, mass extinctions of living organisms have repeatedly occurred. Such were the extinctions on the border of the Vendian and Cambrian periods, when the Ediacaran biota perished, the Permian and Triassic periods, the Cretaceous and Eocene periods. After the mass death of old groups of organisms, the flowering of those groups that survived extinction began. Smaller extinctions, such as the post-glacial extinction of large mammals after the last ice age, also lead to changes in groups of organisms. Man has led to the extinction of species most vulnerable to its man-made activities.

Growth of biodiversity

Paleontological finds, despite their incompleteness and limitations, demonstrate the presence of an increase in biodiversity both in the ocean and on land.

Evolution levels

On the different levels organizations of the living property of evolution and its mechanisms play different roles.

• genetic
• genomic
• population
• specific
• taxon
• ecosystem
• biospheric

Mutations

Genetic variation arises from random mutations occurring in the genomes of organisms. Mutations are changes in the DNA nucleotide sequence caused by radiation, viruses, transposons, chemical mutagens, and copying errors that occur during meiosis or DNA replication. These mutagens produce several different types of changes in the DNA nucleotide sequence: they may cause no effect, alter the gene product, or stop the gene from functioning altogether. Studies in fruit flies have shown that if mutations cause changes in the protein that is encoded by a particular gene, then the consequences are likely to be detrimental. Approximately 70% of these mutations lead to certain disorders, the rest are neutral or beneficial. Since mutations often have a detrimental effect on cells, organisms have evolved DNA repair mechanisms that eliminate mutations. Thus, the optimal mutation rate is a compromise between the price of a high frequency of detrimental mutations and the price of metabolic costs (eg, the synthesis of repair enzymes) to reduce this frequency. Some organisms, such as retroviruses, have such a high mutation rate that nearly every one of their offspring will own a mutated gene. Such high frequency mutations can be an advantage because these viruses evolve very quickly, thus avoiding immune system responses.

Mutations can involve large stretches of DNA, such as gene duplications, which is the raw material for the evolution of new genes. In animals, on average, tens to hundreds of gene duplications occur every million years. Most genes that share a common ancestral gene belong to the same genetic family. New genes are formed in several ways, generally by duplication of ancestral genes, or by recombination of parts of different genes, resulting in new combinations of nucleotides with new functions. New genes form new proteins with new functions. For example, four genes are used to form the structures of the human eye that are responsible for the perception of light: three for color vision (cones) and one for night vision (rods), all of these genes are descended from one ancestral gene. Another advantage of duplicating a gene, or even an entire genome, is that it increases the redundancy (redundancy) of the genome; this allows one gene to take on new functions while a copy of that gene performs the original function. Changes in chromosomes can occur as a result of large mutations, when segments of DNA within a chromosome break off and then reattach elsewhere on the chromosome. Nariklad, two chromosomes of the genus Homo fused to form human chromosome 2. This fusion did not take place in the phylogenetic series of other monkeys, that is, they have these chromosomes separated. The most important role of such chromosomal rearrangements in evolution is the acceleration of population divergence with the formation of new species due to the fact that fewer interpopulation crossings occur.

DNA sequences that can move around the genome (Mobile genetic elements), such as transposons, form the majority of the genetic material of plant and animal genetic material and are important in the evolution of genomes. For example, over a million Alu sequences are present in the human genome and these sequences now serve to carry out the regulation of gene expression. Another effect of these mobile DNAs is that they can mutate or even remove existing genes, thus increasing genetic diversity.

The problem of the origin of life

Recognition of evolution by the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church recognized in the encyclical of Pope Pius XII lat. humanigeneris, that the theory of evolution can explain the origin of the body of man (but not his soul), calling, however, for caution in judgment and calling the theory of evolution a hypothesis. In 1996, Pope John Paul II, in a letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, confirmed the acceptance of theistic evolutionism as a valid position for Catholicism, stating that the theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis. Therefore, among Catholics, literal, young-earth, creationism is liquid (J. Keane is one of the few examples). Leaning towards theistic evolutionism and the theory of "intelligent design", Catholicism in the person of its highest hierarchs, including the elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, nevertheless, unconditionally rejects materialistic evolutionism.

directed change of any process, system, object, which is irreversible. This change always takes place in real (dynamic or historical) time. Evolution can be of various types: 1) from simple to complex and vice versa, 2) progressive and regressive, 3) linear and non-linear, 4) spontaneous and conscious, etc. As a rule, it occurs gradually, through accumulation a large number micro-changes of the phenomenon. Directed changes play an important role not only in biological, but even more so in social sphere, but also in physical and chemical processes as well as in the field of education. (See change, progress, revolution).

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Evolution

(Evolution). Ch. Darwin's book "The Origin of Species" (1859) caused heated debate between theologians and scientists. The defenders of Darwin raised it to the shield as a new word in science, with the help of which one can reinterpret the entire experience of the existence of mankind. Others called the theory of evolution a product of the devil, having no scientific value. But most people are in between. In this article, we will try to analyze the various theories that explain the origin of man and connect them with the biblical story of the creation of man, as well as present criticism of these theories.

liberal outlook. Darwin's contemporary O. Comte put forward an evolutionary theory of three stages in the development of religion: (1) fetishism is a separate will, the edges affect material objects; (2) polytheism many gods acting through inanimate objects; (3) monotheism is a single, abstract will that governs the entire universe. Liberal theologians have applied this theory to the interpretation of the Bible (the concept of "gradual revelation"). According to this theory, God revealed himself to people gradually at first as a cruel, ruthless OT tyrant who treated them as temporary members of the community with no personal value. But ideas about God changed through the suffering experience of the Babylonian captivity Israel comes to the intense expectation of a personal God, expressed in the psalms, and, finally, to faith in Jesus Christ, the personal Savior and Lord of every Christian.

Rise of criticism high level contributed to the development of liberal exegesis. Commenting on the Pentateuch, liberals questioned not only the authorship of Moses, but also the authenticity of the biblical story of the creation of the world and the flood because of their alleged similarity with the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish. From now on, liberal theologians regard the Bible as a great literary monument and, along with necessary, vital truths, find in it many purely human errors and outdated teachings.

The Catholic theologian and anthropologist P. Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) considered the theory of evolution in a biblical context. He tried to interpret the Christian gospel in terms of evolution. According to his concept, original sin is not a consequence of the disobedience of the first people, but rather the action of the negative forces of counter-evolution, i.e. evil. This evil is the mechanism of creation of the unfinished universe. God creates the world of the beginning of time, constantly transforming the universe and man. The blood and the cross of Christ are symbols of the new rebirth, through which the universe develops. Accordingly, Christ is no longer the Savior of the world, but the pinnacle of evolution, which determines its movement and meaning. Then Christianity is first of all faith in the gradual unification of the world in God. The mission of the Church is the relief of human suffering, not the spiritual redemption of the world. This mission is directly related to the inevitable progress generated by evolution.

Evangelical Christian Perspectives. Evangelical Christians consider the Bible to be the Word of God and the only infallible guideline for faith and conduct. Nevertheless, at least four theories are widely held among evangelical Christians relating biblical exegesis to the discoveries in modern science: (1) theories about humans before Adam, (2) "fundamentalist creationism", (3) theistic evolutionism, and (4) the theory of gradual creation of the world.

Theories about people before Adam. These theories fall into two groups. The "interval theory" says that after the creation of heaven and earth and before the situation described in Genesis 1:2, there was a chronological gap, during which a great cataclysm devastated the earth. Jer 4:2326 is usually quoted in support; Isaiah 24:1; 45:18. According to this theory, early human remains testify to humans before Adam, whose creation is described in Genesis 1:1. The theory of two Adams states that the first Adam from Genesis 1 was the Adam of the bygone Stone Age, and the second Adam from Genesis 2 was the Adam of the New Stone Age and the ancestor modern man. Thus, the whole Bible tells about the fall and salvation of Adam of the new Stone Age and his descendants.

"Fundamentalist Creationism". It includes all theories, according to Crimea, the creation of the world, described in Genesis 1, literally lasted twenty-four hours. These ideas suggest that the age of the Earth is 10 thousand years, and most of the modern (if not all) organic fossils were formed as a result of the Flood. They accept the chronology developed by Archbishop J. Asher (15811656) and J. Lightfoot, the edge being built on the assumption that the biblical genealogy was to serve as the basis of the chronology. Proponents of "fundamentalist creationism" reject any evolutionary development organisms and explain modern species differences by differences among the original organisms created by God. From their point of view, the theory of evolution is the culmination of an atheistic worldview, which undermines the authority of the Bible and casts doubt on the story of the creation of the world. Thus, any evolutionary approach to the Genesis 1 story is a blow to the Christian faith.

Theistic evolutionism. Proponents of this theory see Genesis as an allegory and a poetic presentation of spiritual truths about man's dependence on the Creator and falling away from God's grace. Theistic evolutionists have no doubts about the Bible's validity. They also acknowledge that God created man in the process organic evolution. They believe that the Bible only tells us that God created the world, but does not reveal how He created it. Science has offered a mechanistic explanation for the origin of life in terms of evolutionary theory. But the two levels of explanation should complement each other, not contradict each other. Despite the need to abandon the historicity of the Fall, theistic evolutionists understand that the theory of organic evolution, embedded in the Christian understanding of the origin of life, cannot shake the fundamental Christian doctrine of original sin and the need for redemption.

The theory of the gradual creation of the world. This theory seeks to connect science and Scripture. Proponents of this view are trying to interpret Holy Scripture in a new way, focusing on new scientific discoveries. Without dismissing the irrefutable scientific data testifying to the ancient age of the Earth, they see in the traditional theory of "days of epochs" an image of a long period of time, and not a day consisting of 24 hours. They regard this interpretation as sound exegesis, in keeping with the ancient age of the earth.

Representatives of this direction are cautious in their assessments. scientific theory evolution. They accept only the microevolutionary theory, according to which mutations, formed as a result of natural selection, contributed to species diversity. They are skeptical of macroevolution (from ape to man) and organic evolution (from molecule to man) because these theories are not consistent with the well-studied mechanism of natural selection. Therefore, for supporters of the gradual creation of the world, modern differences in organisms are the result of species divergence and a consequence of microevolution, which began with prototypes originally created by God. There are at least three variants of the "day-age" theory: (1) the theory that a "day" is a geological period, and each day of creation from Genesis 1 corresponds to a specific geological era; (2) the "discontinuous day" theory that each stage of creation was preceded by a day consisting of 24 hours; (3) the theory of overlapping "day-ages" each era of creation begins with the phrase: "And there was evening and there was morning", but partly coincides with other eras.

Criticism. liberal evolutionism. The influence of humanism, with its exaggerated analytical criticism, which sought to eliminate everything irrational and supernatural from the Bible, led to the fact that the Holy Scriptures began to be seen as simply a great religious book, and not the Word of God. The only truth of Holy Scripture with its obsolete traditions was considered to be human experience, which found expression in the Jewish aspirations of personal liberation, and completion in the person of Jesus Christ. However, the attempt to reduce the meaning of the Bible to the search for personal salvation was unsuccessful. Too often it has turned into a verbose sensibility that has nothing to do with the truth and historicity of the biblical narrative.

Liberal evolutionism placed a person in a closed space of relative ethics, where there were no moral criteria, with the help of which he could evaluate the moral values ​​that contradict each other, asserted by himself and other people.

Theories about people before Adam. According to some scholars, the "interval theory" is untenable for two reasons: (1) it is not supported by biblical evidence; (2) it was invented by believing geologists who sought to reconcile the apparent contradictions between the creation of light and plants before the sun appeared, and the antiquity of human remains. References to Jer 4:23; Isaiah 24:1 and 45:18, supposedly testifying to God's judgment over His creation before the events described in Genesis 1:2, a big stretch. The context shows that these passages herald things to come. The word "was" in Genesis 1:2, which the supporters of this theory interpreted as "became", must be understood exactly as "was", since no other interpretation follows from the context. The word "refill" in Genesis 1:28 should be taken literally, and not "refill" as this theory suggests, trying to depict the once inhabited Earth, the land was devastated. The theory of two Adams cannot be recognized as exegetically legitimate; besides, it contradicts the idea of ​​the unity of the human race, which is shared by all anthropologists and orthodox theologians.

"Fundamentalist Creationism". The main difficulty facing the supporters of this view is how to explain the ancient age of the Earth. Since atheistic theories of evolution deal with vast periods of time, representatives of this line of thought argue that the concept of an ancient age of the earth is a compromise with atheism that undermines the Christian faith. Therefore, they reject the principle of uniformitarianism ("the present is the key to the past") and all dating methods that confirm the ancient origin of the Earth in favor of a worldwide cataclysm. However, due to the lack of clear evidence of a Flood and an explanation for the amazing distribution of various animals on different continents, the Flood theory remains unproven. In addition, its proponents neglect the multitude of data confirming microevolutionary processes that can be observed in nature and in the laboratory. Many saw this biased approach to scientific discoveries based on a specific biblical exegesis, a continuation of the medieval obscurantism that engulfed the Church during the Copernican revolution.

Theistic evolutionism. If man is a product of random events of natural selection, then theistic evolutionists must convince the secular world of the supernatural origin of man, created in the image and likeness of God, and of the truth of the doctrine of original sin. The allegorical interpretation of the creation story strikes at these two most important Christian teachings. Denying the historicity of the first Adam, this point of view calls into question the meaning of the crucifixion of Christ the Second Adam (Rom. 5:1221) and thus all Christian gospel.

The texts of Gen 1:12:4 are correlated with each other and are introduced in repeated phrases. Therefore, some theistic evolutionists talk about the "poetics" of these structures. However, this interpretation is unconvincing for two reasons. First, the creation story in Genesis 1:12:4 is unlike any known poetic work.

The Genesis story has no parallel in the vast biblical poetry and non-biblical Semitic literature. The command to keep the Sabbath is explained by the events of the first week of creation (Ex 20:811). An allegorical interpretation cannot become the actual basis of this commandment, and therefore it is unconvincing.

Eleven verses ending with the words: "Here is the genealogy [life] ..." from the first thirty-six chapters of Genesis reproduce historical picture primitive and patriarchal life (1:12:4; 2:55:1; 5:26:9a; 6:9610:1; 10:211:10a; 11:10b27a; 11:27625:12; 25:1319a; 25 :19636:1; 36:29; 36:1037:2). The NT considers the events described in Gen. to be real^ 10:6; 1 Corinthians 11:89).

The creation of Eve (Gen. 2:2122) is also a mystery to theistic evolutionists who accept the naturalistic explanation of the origin of man from animals. Furthermore, Genesis 2:7 says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being." Although the creation process is not described in detail, the early chapters of Genesis convey the idea of ​​creating man from inorganic matter, and not from a pre-existing living form.

Heb. the word meaning "living soul" (Gen. 2:7) is identical with the expression from Gen. 1:2021,24: "... let the water bring forth reptiles, living creatures..." In the original, all these verses contain the word nepes (" soul"). The difference between man and animals is that man is made in the image of God, while animals are not. Therefore, Genesis 2:7 implies that humans became living souls, like all other animals. Therefore, these verses cannot be interpreted as if human beings arose from an animal being that preceded them.

Religious evolutionists put too much faith in the theory of organic evolution, which has not yet been reasonably formulated. In their desire to reconcile naturalistic and religious approaches to the question of the origin of life, they unwittingly show inconsistency, denying the miracle of the creation of the world, but accepting the supernatural character of the Christian gospel. This inconsistency is partly due to the notion that reality can be analyzed on many levels, each of which is more or less complete. Thus, another difficulty arises (from a holistic Christian point of view) reality breaks up into spiritual and physical. A similar dualism lurks in the theistic evolutionary approach to man as a product of natural evolution and a spirit that God "breathed" into him through a supernatural act.

Gradual creation of the world. Supporters of this position argue that, in addition to the scientific data that testify to the ancient age of the Earth, there is also biblical evidence proving that the "day" in Genesis can be understood as an indefinitely long period of time and that biblical genealogies cannot serve as a basis for accurate chronologies were not intended for this.

To prove that the day of creation is a long period of time, the following arguments are given. (1) God created the Sun with the function of determining days and years only on the fourth day. Therefore, the first days did not consist of twenty-four hours. (2) In objection to the "day-ages" theory, the fourth commandment is usually cited, which is not always justified, since this argument is based on analogy, not on identity. The establishment of the Sabbath year (Ex 23:10; Lev 25:37) seems to confirm that the Sabbath is a day of rest. Men must rest one day after six days of work, and the earth must rest one year after six years of harvest, for God worked for six "days" and rested on the seventh. (3) The words: "And there was evening, and there was morning ..." completing each "day of creation," cannot be an argument in favor of the theory of an ordinary day, consisting of twenty-four hours. The word "day" can mean a stretch of time of indeterminate length (Gen. 2:4; Ps. 89:14) and yet daylight opposed to night (Gen. 1:5); therefore the constituent parts of the "day" can also be understood allegorically (Ps. 89:56). Moreover, if these expressions are taken literally, then evening and morning together make night, not day. (4) The events of the sixth day of creation described in Genesis 2 seem to have gone on for an extremely long time. This time span is expressed in Heb. the word happaam (Gen. 2:23) "behold," which Adam utters. This word indicates that Adam waited a long time for his girlfriend, and finally his wish came true. This interpretation is supported by the fact that the word occurs in the OT in the context of elapsed time (Gen 29:3435; 30:20; 46:30; Ex 9:27; Jd 15:3; 16:18).

As for biblical genealogies, the famous biblical scholar W. Green analyzed them and concluded that they cannot serve as the basis for an accurate chronology. Other biblical scholars have confirmed this conclusion. Green found that in biblical genealogies only the most important names are given, and the rest are omitted, and the words "father" "begotten" "son" are used in a broad sense.

The traditional interpretation of the "days of the epoch" refers the days to different geological periods. However, the days of creation are difficult to correlate with real fossils. In addition, the creation of earthly greenery, sowing seed, and trees, bearing fruit, before creating animals, is a certain difficulty, because. many plants that bear seed and fruit need insects for pollination and fertilization. The theory of discontinuous and overlapping "day-ages" solves this problem by proposing the following hypothesis: fruit-bearing trees and animals were created at the same time. The modern model of the origin of the Earth and the solar system is in good agreement with the story from Gen. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe was expanding from a superdense state. Thirteen billion years ago, an explosion occurred, and in the process of gradual cooling of the Universe, interstellar matter was formed, from which galaxies, stars, the Earth and other planets arose. The events of the first three epochs of the creation of the world correspond to the modern theory of the origin of the Earth and planets from a dark gas and dust nebula. It contained water vapor, from which oxygen was released, which is necessary for plant photosynthesis.

All three of these models assume a process of change after the creation of each prototype of living organisms. Interpreting the seventh day of creation, when the Lord rested, the model of overlapping "day-ages" suggests the following hypothesis: the creation of the world was completed at the end of the sixth day (Genesis 1:31), and on the seventh day God rested. This concept is consistent with traditional views. However, according to the "discontinuous day" model, the creation of the world continues, and we live in an era that began on the sixth solar day and lay between the sixth and seventh days of creation. God continues to create, transforming inorganic and organic nature. The seventh day, the unconditional day of rest (Heb 4:1), will only begin after the birth of the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:18). This later view creates certain difficulties in interpreting Genesis 2:1: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them."

The problems that "gradual creationism" faces are not as insurmountable as those that confront other models, because it deliberately tries to connect science with Holy Scripture. But there are two more difficult problems. (1) How does the ancient origin of man compare with the highly developed civilization described in Genesis 4? Despite the absence of ancient remnants of material culture, physical anthropology suggests that man has probably existed on Earth for millions of years. Therefore, the first important problem is how to explain the huge time interval between the emergence of man and human civilization, which arose over 9 thousand years ago. BC? Attempts to smooth over the difficulties include references to the civilization of Cain and Abel, described in the Bible extremely sparingly, and to the supposedly extinct civilization (Gen. 4:12), which perished due to sin. Human culture could reappear with the onset of the Neolithic, about 11 thousand years ago. (2) What is the extent of the flood? Due to the lack of clear evidence of a global flood, many "gradual creationists" accept the theory of a local flood that swept only Mesopotamia. The main argument of this theory is that there was a kind of metonymy; the ancient Eastern written records call a significant part instead of the whole (see Gen. 41:57; Deut. 2:25; 1 Sam. 18:10; Ps. 22:17; Mt. 3:5 ; John 4:39; Acts 2:5). Thus, the "universality" of the flood may mean the universality of the experience of those who spoke about it. Yes, Moses could not imagine the Flood, not knowing the true size of the Earth.

Conclusion. Liberal evolutionists have questioned the reliability of human moral judgments. Supporters of "fundamentalist creationism" adhere to certain theological traditions, krye belittle the objectivity of science. Theistic evolutionists surrender important theological positions to atheists and liberals by offering an allegorical interpretation of the creation of the world and the fall. Proponents of "gradual creationism" seem to be able to preserve the integrity of both Scripture and science.

R. R. T. Pun (trans. A. K.) Bibliography: R. J. Berry, Adam and Are: A Christian Approach to the Theory of Evolution; R. Bube, The Human Quest; J. O. Busweli, Jr., Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion; H.M. Morris, Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science; R.C. Newman and H.J. Eckelmann, Jr., Genesis One and the Origin of the Universe; E.K.V. Pearce, Who Was Adam? P.P.T. Pun, Evolution: Nature and Scripture in Conflict? B. Ramm, The Christian View of Science and Scripture; J.C.Whitcomb and H.M. Morris, The Genesis Flood; E.J. Young, Studies in Genesis One.

See also: Creation, doctrine about it; Man (his origin); Age of the Earth.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Biological evolution is the historical development of the organic world. The word "evolution" is Latin and in translation means - "deployment", and in a broad sense - any change, development, transformation. In biology, the word "evolution" was first used in 1762 by the Swiss naturalist and philosopher C. Bonnet.

Life originated on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. The predecessors of the first organisms were complex organic protein compounds that formed gelatinous lumps, the so-called coacervate droplets. These droplets, floating in the primordial ocean, were able to grow by assimilating various nutrients. They broke up into child droplets, of which more perfect ones existed longer. The structure of coacervates gradually became more complicated, they formed a nucleus and other elements of a living cell. This is how the simplest unicellular organisms appeared.

Millennia passed, and the structure of living beings as a result of natural selection improved more and more. Some of these simple organisms have acquired the ability to absorb the energy of the sun's rays and build organic substances in their bodies from carbon dioxide and water. Thus, the first unicellular plants, blue-green algae, arose.

Other living creatures retained the old way of eating, but primary plants began to serve as food for them. These were the first animals.

Later, as a result of evolution from unicellular protozoa, the first multicellular organisms appeared - sponges, archaeocyates (extinct invertebrate animals), coelenterates. Gradually, the world of plants and animals became more complex and diverse, they also populated the land.

According to their fossil remains - prints, fossilized skeletons - scientists have found that the older the organisms, the simpler they are. The closer to our time, the organisms become more complex and more similar to modern ones.

As a result of the development of the organic world, higher plants and highly organized animals appeared on Earth. From mammals - fossil apes - man descended.

Takova brief scheme evolution of life on our planet.

Evolution is one of the forms of movement in nature. It continuously and gradually leads to qualitative and quantitative changes in living organisms that are exposed to both inanimate nature, as well as other organisms.

The study of the causes and patterns of evolution in biology is carried out by evolutionary doctrine - a complex of knowledge about historical development living nature. The basis of this doctrine is evolutionary theory.

Even the philosophers of the ancient world - Empedocles, Democritus, Lucretius Carus and others - expressed brilliant guesses about the development of life. But many centuries passed before science accumulated enough facts that allowed scientists to discover the variability of species, and then create a theory explaining the evolutionary process taking place in nature.

In the second half of the XVIII - first half of the XIX century. J. Buffon and E. J. Saint-Hilaire in France, E. Darwin in England, J. V. Goethe in Germany, M. V. Lomonosov, A. I. Radishchev, A. A. Kaverznev, K. F. Rulye in Russia and others created the doctrine of the variability of animal and plant species, which contradicted the teaching of the church about their creation by God and immutability. However, they did not consider the causes that lead to these changes.

The first attempt to create an evolutionary theory was made by the French naturalist J. B. Lamarck (1744-1829). In his work "Philosophy of Zoology" (1809), he outlined a holistic theory of the origin of species, but he could not correctly explain what are the driving forces for the development of the organic world.

A truly scientific evolutionary theory was created by the English naturalist Charles Darwin. It was set forth in the book The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Breeds in the Struggle for Life, 1859). Darwin was able to determine the driving forces - the factors of the evolutionary process. This is indefinite variability, the struggle for existence, natural selection.

As a result of the struggle for existence, the organisms most adapted to the conditions of life survive, while the less adapted, weak ones are eliminated from reproduction or die. Due to natural selection in plants and animals, useful hereditary changes are accumulated and summarized, and new adaptations (adaptations) also arise.

The struggle for existence and natural selection are the most important driving factors of evolution, they are interconnected. They determine the further existence of the organism. In the process of biological evolution, the number of species of living organisms also increases. The formation of new species in nature - milestone in the process of evolution.

As a result of the evolutionary process, the genetic composition of populations changes, biocenoses and the biosphere as a whole are transformed.

Evolutionary doctrine and its core - biological evolutionary theory - the basis of modern progressive biology.