A Brief History.

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, man and the earth are pretty special to God. A simplistic interpretation of Genesis assumes that of the six days of creation, God used one day to create the heavens and the earth filled with light, then He spent the next five days making provisions for the survival of His final creation — man. Is it any wonder that for thousands of years man has believed he is the center of the universe? Yet as we shall see, the “days” of creation are not our 24-hour days.

            The earliest theories on the cosmos placed the earth at the center of the universe. The sun, moon, planets and stars all circled the earth. The Mesopotamians taught this theory, centuries before being taught by Aristotle, and later by Greek astronomer Ptolemy. This was not the only theory taught: even from the beginning there were dissenters, e.g., Greek astronomer Aristarchus in 270 BC taught that the earth circled the sun. But Aristotle carried more clout than Aristarchus, and his opinion was silenced.

            In 1530 Copernicus published his theory that the earth revolved around the sun. Copernicus' work was written in Latin, the language of the church and scholars. The church quietly tolerated this theory until 1633 when a very vocal Galileo confirmed the views of Copernicus in everyday language. Interestingly, the Roman Church had licensed Galileo to publish his work prior to the Inquisition; with time, Galileo's work changed the way the universe was perceived.

            For two hundred years, beginning with the 17^th century, science and the Bible coexisted relatively comfortably.

And then — Darwin. The name itself can boil the blood of many an otherwise quiet and peace-loving Christian. In 1827 Charles Darwin entered the University of Cambridge to become a clergyman for the Church of England. Upon graduation Darwin signed on as an unpaid naturalist on the survey ship HMS Beagle for an expedition around the world. During this expedition Darwin saw firsthand things he could not explain by the theories he had learned. Among these were fossils of supposedly extinct creatures that closely resembled living creatures. Also the Galapagos Islands proved puzzling, with each island having different forms of the same species of animals. Darwin's natural selection theory was published in 1859. It claimed that species slowly change through time as favorable adaptations make the animal better able to survive in its environment. These creatures would then pass favorable change on to their offspring. This theory was met with much criticism among scientists and religious leaders alike, even though Darwin originally gave God the glory of being responsible for the gradual changes he perceived in the species of animal life on earth.

            Scientists began to embrace this “evolution” theory as research continued on the newly discovered fossils of the huge extinct creatures we call dinosaurs. The first dinosaur fossils were discovered in 1820. What fueled the fire of separation between science and the theologians was that paleontologists believed the fossils were very old, far older than the traditional Bible creation dates allowed. Geologists, likewise, began to question the age of the earth; it appeared to them to be not a few thousand years, but billions of years, old. Meanwhile, astronomers. such as Edwin Hubble (the Hubble Space Telescope honors his name), using Galileo's invention the telescope, began to make startling discoveries of their own. Not only was the earth not the center of the solar system, but the solar system was not even at the center of the galaxy. It was way out in the suburbs of an ordinary galaxy that was one of millions of other galaxies. The universe also seemed to be much older than even the earth. Astronomers now believe it to be some 17 billion years old.

            These galaxies were found by Edwin Hubble to be moving away from each other at a high speed. This led physicist George Gamow to present the big bang theory for the creation of the universe. In the 1960's astronomers Penzias and Wilson observed a background radiation pattern of incredible uniformity and intensity occurring in every direction of the cosmos. This discovery is important because it precisely coincides with predictions made by the big bang theory.

            Later were discovered the cavemen. Scientists believe the fossil records show that Australopithecus, an upright walking ape-man, lived in east Africa and the Middle East some 4 to 5 million years ago. Some 2 million years ago, scientists say Homo erectus, a stone tool-making creature with a large brain and more human-like features, replaced the ape-man. These creatures (Peking Man) are found from Africa to tropical China. Homo Sapiens (not modern man) is believed by scientists to have appeared 200,000 to 300,000 years ago. Homo Sapiens was later replaced by Homo Sapiens Neanderthalis, or Neanderthal man, about 100 thousand years ago. The fossil record indicates the Neanderthal lived from ice age Europe to the Middle East. Modern man (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) appears abruptly as Neanderthal becomes extinct, according to some scientists, around 40,000 years ago.