You are a journalist working for the Sunday Times newspaper. Your editor has asked you to write a piece entitled 'Where did it all begin? - Explain and discuss
You are a journalist working for the Sunday Times newspaper. Your editor has asked you to write a piece entitled 'Where did it all begin?' The aim of the article is to discuss the different views of the origin of life that exist in religious and scientific communities around the world. As a part of your task, you must comment on why people have these different views, what scientific evidence exist
Sunday Times – special article of the creation of the universe…
By our amazing correspondent
So, where did it all begin? By ‘all’, I mean of course the universe and life. Who created earth and mankind? How did earth and the universe come about? Was it a huge accident – or was it a coordinated creation? There are many views on this matter, many by different religious sects and scientific communities. I didn’t know where to start at first, but thought it wise to start off with a scientific review, assess its evidence, and then look at other creation beliefs of other religions. The school’s astrology club seemed a suitable place to begin my search for the most logical creation story. Of course, I was very reluctant to go to inside the dreaded lab, where the rejected schoolchildren dwell, but I was forced to and nothing could deter me from my determinedness.
I asked some members of the astronomy club what they though about the creation of the universe and life. They all agreed that it was a theory called ‘the big bang’ that was most reasonable. This is the most popular scientific theory of creation among scientists. I asked Marlon, an aspiring astrologist, and an eager member of the astrology club to elaborate:
“Basically, we think that it was a gigantic explosion that caused the mater of the universe, which was densely squashed together, to suddenly expand outwards. Of course, this has evidence! Look at the stars; they are a clue in the universe that point to this theory. I see you don’t get me…” I didn’t. I asked him to explain this ‘evidence’. “Each star is like a great ball of fire, like the sun. The stars are grouped into galaxies, and these are moving apart from each other. Scientists point out that this movement is what you would expect if all matter had started from the same place and then exploded apart. They use the present position of the galaxies and the rate at which they are moving apart to work out when the big bang occurred”. After asking others in the astronomy club for more of their views, I found out that they thought that the mix in gases and elements created tiny micro organisms that had evolved into the creatures we know today. But all this had only explained how the earth was created. I asked them how where humans created. They all looked blank and slightly bemused, until one of them piped up and said “evolution”. The theory of evolution was another theory that appealed to scientists and all around me heads popped out and started talking feverishly about its ‘base constituents’ and the ‘theory of the theory’, as they called them. The story is that in the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin went on a scientific expedition on board a government vessel HMS Beagle. The object was to look at the different forms of coral islands and to investigate the geographical distribution of animals and plants. During this voyage, (1831-1836) to many parts of the southern hemisphere, Darwin noted how the animals and plants had adapted to their environment. He concluded that their survival depended on their ability to adapt to their surroundings and to the changing circumstances. This gave rise to the idea that, in nature, only the fittest survive, with the adaptive characteristics being passed on to the next generation. So, over the millions f years, as complex changes occur, life forms evolve into increasingly complicated ones. Darwin’s studies led him to believe that humans had evolved from lower members of the animal kingdom – the theory of evolution!
