Explain the Christian and Scientific versions of how the Earth came into existence

As early as the fourth century St Augustine was writing that God probably only created very simple life forms in the beginning and that these developed over time.

There are two different scientific theories about this:

* Cosmology This science deals with the way in which the universe came into being. Unlike the creation story from Genesis, cosmology seeks an evidence-based explanation for the way the universe came into existence. Most cosmologists agree that the universe began in a 'Big Bang' about 14 billion years ago, and that all the stars and planets, including the earth, were formed during the subsequent expansion of the universe, which is continuing today.

* Evolution This science argues, rather like Augustine, that the higher and more advanced forms of life, like human beings, have slowly developed or evolved from the original simpler life forms which originally appeared on the earth. Evolutionary science first really came to public attention in 1859 when Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species. He argued that life begin with very simple cells and later developed into what we see today. Darwin's findings upset many religious people, and one Christian scientist, Philip Gosse, even argued that the fossils discovered in the ground had been placed there by God to test the faith of Christians by making evolution appear to have happened.

Today many Christians accept the theories of cosmology and evolution and do not take the Biblical account of the Creation literally. They believe that the Bible is there to explain why God created the world, and the relationship between God and nature, rather than a scientific account of how the world was created.

Explain 'Natural selection'

Natural selection is the process that drives evolution, or adaptation. It is commonly described as "the survival of the fittest". Those organisms that are best adapted to their environment are the ones that survive, and are the ones that get to breed successfully, so their genes are passed on, and their particular strengths are passed on to the next generation. The weaker animals or organisms that do not breed do not pass on their genes, and so only the fittest genes survive. This is what is known as natural selection. Darwin first noticed this most clearly when he dealt with the finches of the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos finches provided an excellent example of this process. For instance, among the birds that ended up in dry environments, the ones with beaks that were better suited for eating cactus got more food. As a result, they were in better condition to mate. In a very real sense, nature selected the best adapted varieties to survive and to reproduce. This process has come to be known as natural selection.

Darwin did not believe that the environment was producing the variation within the finch populations. He correctly thought that the variation already existed and that nature just selected for the most suitable beak shape and against others. Darwin and his supporters described this process as the "survival of the fittest."