Gayle E. Woloschak

In the science-religion community much effort is placed on doing ‘evolution apologetics — i.e., defending evolution against creationism or intelligent design or some other form of fundamentalist perspective on human origins. This article will not engage in the usual apologetics as that has been done elsewhere (1–3) in depth.¹ Instead, this work will attempt to discuss evolution from the perspective of the implications it has for how we think about humanity now and in the future.
Life Is at Which Evolves

There are many definitions of life—that which is capable of reproduction, that which can metabolize, etc. One definition that seems fitting in this article is ‘that which evolves’. Evolution was first defined in biology as a process by which natural selection chooses those species that are most fit to survive in their current environment. Biological evolution also implies that survival will permit procreation where the next generation will largely resemble the parental organism(s) that survived. The conveyers of evolution are genes, fragments of DNA that code for proteins that function in cells. Changes in genetic material are called mutations. On the level of organism, mutations can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral. Mutations can be beneficial in one environment and harmful in another. At the same time, mutants that are neutral (i.e., convey no advantage or disadvantage in a given environment) remain in the population in silence…and yet at some future time, these neutral mutations could become advantageous or problematic.

On Planet Earth, life became life when I became capable of evolving.² It is not known if this is the same on all planets (if there is life on other planets), but on this planet evolution is a pre-requisite for life. Evolution is a natural process, but it is also the reason for other ‘natural’ processes. Humans reproduce by sexual reproduction because evolution selected for it, and many species reproduce by asexual reproduc-

1. G. E. Woloschak, ‘The Compatibility of the Principles of Evolution with Eastern Orthodoxy’, in. St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 55 (2011): 209–31; Gayle E. Woloschak, ‘God of Life: Contemplating Evo- lution, Ecology, Extinction’, in The Ecumenical Review 65.1 (2013): 145–59.

2. Much of the description about evolution comes from textbook and Wikipedia information about evolution. One of the best evolution textbooks is D. Futuyama and M. Kirkpatrick, Evolution (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2018). Wikipedia also has a variety of different websites with accurate information on evolution, mutations, etc.