The Spiritual Life Windows to Spirituality

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Timeline Of Intelligent Design

Timeline Of Intelligent Design This timeline of intelligent design outlines the major events in the development of intelligent design as presented and promoted by the intelligent design movement. See also: Darwinism and Evolution Creationism Main article: Creationism 1920s: Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy – in an upsurge of fundamentalist religious fervor, anti-evolutionary sentiment stopped U.S. public schools from teaching evolution, through state laws such as...

Evolution Human Evolution The Theory Of Evolution

Acceptance of Evolution by Religious Groups

Acceptance of Evolution by Religious Groups This article covers the acceptance of evolution by religious groups. Although biological evolution has been vocally opposed by some religious groups, many other groups accept the scientific position, sometimes with additions to allow for theological considerations. The positions of such groups are described by terms including...

Microevolution

Microevolution Microevolution is the change in allele frequencies that occurs over time within a population. This change is due to four different processes: mutation, selection (natural and artificial), gene flow and genetic drift. This change happens over a relatively short (in evolutionary terms) amount of time compared to the changes termed macroevolution which is where greater differences in the population occur....

Early cetaceans like Ambulocetus natans possessed hindlimbs, derived from their walking ancestors, but no longer useful in their marine environment.

Macroevolution

Macroevolution Macroevolution is evolution on a scale at or above the level of species, in contrast with microevolution, which refers to smaller evolutionary changes of allele frequencies within a species or population. Macroevolution and microevolution describe fundamentally identical processes on different scales. The process of speciation may fall within the purview of either, depending on the forces thought...

Mutation

Mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extra chromosomal DNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA replication, mitosis, and meiosis or other types of damage to DNA (such as pyrimidine dimers that may be caused by exposure to radiation or...

Darwin Finch Bird Sparrows Perspective Close Up

Alternatives To Evolution By Natural Selection

Alternatives To Evolution By Natural Selection Alternatives to evolution by natural selection, also described as non-Darwinian mechanisms of evolution, have been proposed by scholars investigating biology since classical times to explain signs of evolution and the relatedness of different groups of living things. The alternatives in question do not encompass religious...

Darwin researched how the skulls of different pigeon breeds varied, as shown in his Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication of 1868.

Reaction To Darwin’s Theory

Reaction To Darwin’s Theory This article covers the reaction to Darwin’s Theory. The immediate reactions to On the Origin of Species, the book in which Charles Darwin described evolution by natural selection, included international debate, though the heat of controversy was less than that over earlier works such as Vestiges of Creation. Darwin monitored...

Charles Darwin

Who Is Charles Darwin? Charles Robert Darwin, (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered...

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Religious Experience

Religious Experience A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of Western society. William James popularised the concept. Many religious and mystical...

Social Effects Of Evolutionary Theory

Social Effects Of Evolutionary Theory The social effects of evolutionary theory have been considerable. As the scientific explanation of life’s diversity has developed, it has often displaced alternative, sometimes very widely held, explanations. Because the theory of evolution includes an explanation of humanity’s origins, it has had a profound impact on...

The Order In The Universe And Creation According To The Torah

The Order In The Universe And Creation According To The Torah This article covers the relationship between the order in the universe and creation according to the Torah. The Creation of the Heavens and the Earth In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was...

Salakapurusa

Salakapurusa According to the Jain cosmology, the Salakapurusa (शलाकपुरूष) “illustrious or worthy persons” are 63 illustrious beings who appear during each half-time cycle. They are also known as the triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣa (63 illustrious persons). The Jain universal or legendary history is a compilation of the deeds of these illustrious persons. Their life...

Islam

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah), and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. It is the world’s second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24% of the world’s population, most commonly known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority...

Several major ideas about evolution came together in the population genetics of the early 20th century to form the so-called modern synthesis, including genetic variation, natural selection, and particulate (Mendelian) inheritance. This was at the time called neo-Darwinism.

Neo-Darwinism

Neo-Darwinism Neo-Darwinism is generally used to describe any integration of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection with Gregor Mendel’s theory of genetics. It mostly refers to evolutionary theory from either 1895 (for the combinations of Darwin’s and Weismann’s theories of evolution) or 1942 (the “modern synthesis“), though it can mean any new Darwinian- and Mendelian-based theory...

Divination

Divination Divination (from Latin divinare “to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy “, related to divinus, divine), or “to be inspired by a god”, is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout history, diviners ascertain...

The First Thanksgiving 1621, oil on canvas by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930). The painting shows common misconceptions about the event that persist to modern times: Pilgrims did not wear such outfits, and the Wampanoag are dressed in the style of Plains Indians.

Ritual

Ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed in a sequestered place and according to set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, but not defined, by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance. Rituals are a feature...

Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism

Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism The evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN) is a philosophical argument asserting a problem with believing both evolution and philosophical naturalism simultaneously. The argument was first proposed by Alvin Plantinga in 1993 and “raises issues of interest to epistemologists, philosophers of mind, evolutionary biologists, and philosophers of religion”....

The Deluge (1840) by Francis Danby. Tate Gallery.

Genesis Flood Narrative

Genesis Flood Narrative The Genesis flood narrative is a flood myth found in the Tanakh (chapters 6–9 in the Book of Genesis). The story tells of God’s decision to return the Earth to its pre-creation state of watery chaos and then remake it in a reversal of creation. The narrative...

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The Quran And Scientific Discoveries

The Quran And Scientific Discoveries This article explores the Quran and scientific discoveries. There are many more verses in the Quran that are related to what we now call scientific facts. The existence of such verses indicates that man’s seeking of knowledge is a portion of Divine Mercy graciously bestowed...

Chinese Creation Myths

Chinese Creation Myths Chinese creation myths are symbolic narratives about the origins of the universe, earth, and life. In Chinese mythology, the term “cosmogonic myth” or “origin myth” is more accurate than “creation myth“, since very few stories involve a creator deity or divine will. Chinese creation myths fundamentally differ from monotheistic traditions with one authorized version,...