QUIZ 2

Question 1

Differentiate between microevolution and marcoevolution.

Answer 1

1. Microevolution?
   Small genetic changes within a species over a short time, like bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics.
2. Macroevolution
   Big evolutionary changes over long periods, leading to new species, like dinosaurs evolving into birds.

Question 2

What is neo-Darwinian evolution?

Answer 2

It combines Mendelian genetics with natural selection and rejects the idea that traits can be inherited from experience or that evolution is driven by an internal life-force.

Question 3

What was Darwin’s most fundamental idea?

Answer 3

Natural selection—the process where organisms with helpful traits survive, reproduce, and pass those traits to their offspring.

Question 4

What enables evolutionary changes?

Answer 4

Mutations—random genetic changes that can help, harm, or have no effect on an organism. Natural selection picks the useful ones.

Question 5

What are the main critiques of evolution?

Answer 5

1. Information theory: Critics argue that new genetic information cannot appear randomly and must be added from an external source, raising questions about how complexity arises.
2. Emergence: The idea that complex things (like the mind) come from simple parts but cannot be fully explained by them, meaning consciousness is more than just brain cells.

Question 6

What are the key ideas of Richard Dawkins?

Answer 6

• Evolution moves from simple to complex over time.
• Everything happens through physical processes (cause-effect).
• Reductionism: Complex things can be understood by breaking them into simpler parts.
• No supernatural role—natural selection explains life.

Question 7

What are directing laws?

Answer 7

Directing laws refer to the idea that natural laws may not only govern the physical processes of the universe but also play a role in guiding the direction of evolutionary processes. Instead of evolution being purely random, these laws may act as mechanisms that steer biological development in a certain direction.

Question 8

What does “evolution of the gaps” mean?

Answer 8

“Evolution of the gaps” is a critique of the idea that evolution is used as a catch-all explanation for scientific phenomena that are currently not fully understood.

Similar to the “God of the Gaps” argument, which assumes that unknown scientific questions must be answered by the existence of God

Question 9

How do the origin of the universe and the origin of life compare?

Answer 9

The origin of the universe is about how everything in existence—matter, energy, space, and time—came into being.

The origin of life, however, is specifically about how living organisms first appeared on Earth and how they evolved into the wide variety of life we see today. The universe’s beginning is more about space and time, while life’s origin is about how life itself began and developed.

Question 10

What are John Lennox’ ideas?

Answer 10

• Science and Faith Compatibility: Lennox argues science and religion are not in conflict; science reveals God’s design in the universe.
• Critique of Atheism (Dawkins): He challenges Dawkins’ view that natural selection explains life without God, stating it can’t account for the origin of life or consciousness.
• Information Theory and Evolution: He argues that evolution can’t explain the origin of complex genetic information without a Creator.