Define evolution in your own words?
Evolution is development. In the case of life, it is the development and adaptation of life to its environment, in order to ensure its survival. And these adaptations can be gradual or sudden.
What is an evolutionary development theory?
Evolutionary developmental biology is the science merging insights from evolution with developmental biology, i.e. the process developing an embryo into an adult.This answer can end here, but keep reading if you want to know why evolutionary developmental biology is even a thing. It may not be immediately obvious, but the interface between evolution and development is in fact fundamental to both.For developmental biologists, understanding evolution is important because the developmental process was built by evolution. In other words, development is constrained by evolution, and we can only understand why things are as they are by understanding how it evolved.At the same time, evolution is also constrained by development. I’ll explain with an example: the giraffe’s neck. We say that there was a mutation that made some of the giraffe’s ancestors’ necks slightly longer. These proto-giraffes were able to graze at higher trees and had more offspring on average, therefore increasing the prevalence of their genotype, and the long neck phenotype with it, in the next generations.But despite its long neck, the giraffe has exactly seven cervical vertebrae in its neck, just like all other mammals. Surely it would also benefit from having more neck vertebrae than, say, a whale? Why was there a mutation that affected the giraffe’s neck length, but there aren’t any mutations that increase the number of neck vertebrae?The answer is of course that the number of vertebrae is fixed during the developmental process, and changing it would require a fundamental change that is nearly inaccessible by gradual evolution through mutation and natural selection.Understanding the developmental process is an invaluable step in understanding how the genotype relates to the phenotype, in which phenotypes are accessible through mutation, and ultimately in understanding which paths evolution can go down, and why.
What is the difference between the words "evolution" and "evolvement"?
In purely etymological terms, I don't think that there is a difference. Evolution has come to mean Darwin's theory and only that. Evolvement is a perfectly acceptable noun to represent the process of changing, for example, from an infant to an adult.
If evolution has occurred here on earth, why hasn’t the Universe evolved, or has it?
If evolution has occurred here on earth, why hasn’t the Universe evolved, or has it?Thanks for asking this. It’s an opportunity to go into the two different uses of the word “evolution”.This word is used to mean gradual development in response to the surroundings, and is also used to mean the changes in life-forms over billions of years on Earth.And the important thing to understand is that there is no difference in meaning between these two uses of the term. Life has gradually developed, entirely in response to its environment and in line with natural processes. And the rest of matter behaves in the same way.So yes, the universe has evolved. In the very early universe it was just hot and dense and relatively simple. Then it cooled enough for atoms to form, mainly hydrogen of course. Matter clumped together into stars, which clumped themselves into galaxies and clusters of galaxies and so on, leading to the vast and much more complex structure we see now. It continues to evolve, though the scales in time and space are so enormous that it’s vanishingly unlikely we will see any recognisable change in the duration of our civilisation.
It is ok to understand Genesis as non-literal, correct?
Yes, and further to your comments, see below for >10,600 more clergy accepting the ToE as reason for life's diversity... Clergy Letter: http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/clergy_project.htm
What are your thoughts on the Evolution-Creation Science Debate?
If you don't believe one way or the other please keep your 'answers' to yourself. Both 'houses' of thought on the Evolution-Creation Science Debate have always got it wrong. Both! Neither really understand what The Word reveals about the Truth of the Creation of all this. This is especially a shame to the Creationists, who purport to know the Word, but do not---all the while attempting to make Yahweh appear as a Magician. They're fools! Yahweh is a Super-Naturalist! One - Yahweh has the Power to stop the orbits of our Solar System as He did for "about a whole day" in the infancy of Israel’s History as a Nation (Joshua 10:12-14). Makes the parting of the Red Sea seem ‘insignificant by comparison’, does it not? Two - Yahweh possesses the Power to affect reverse orbit of the various celestial bodies within our Solar System, turning them about into a direction opposite their original-design travel (2 Kings 20:9-11). Three - I think it very reasonable to accept the Biblical evidence. After all, He did design this Creation! Do you believe that you would design, produce, and market a product that you could not understand, control, or manipulate? How do you think? See Proverbs 3:5, cl. 2; 23:4; and, Romans 12:16, sent. 3. Four - If this Biblical testimony is reliable, then it should also be very easy to conclude that Yahweh has the Power to cause the orbit of our Solar System to advance at such an incredibly slow rate of speed as to facilitate, or give Him ‘time’, for the making of this beautiful Creation! (It is going to be better than ever in approximately 1,003 years!) Or, let’s look at it another way: If there had been a Stopwatch used to measure and record the amount of ‘time’ it took for the six Days of Creation, that watch might have easily indicated 6,000 years from beginning to completion. However, this would not have changed the fact that this ‘time’ was still only six (6) "evenings and mornings"—Six literal Days! Contemplative meditation of these facts makes it much easier to understand how we can see Starlight from Celestial Bodies that are more than 6,000 Light Years Distance from Earth! Argue with the Biblical Evidence all you like. It sure enough clears up all the confusion though! What are your thoughts on the subject? . . .
What is the definition of evolution?
The general word 'evolution' means *slow change*. This can refer to anything that changes slowly ... like "the evolution of Thomas Jefferson's philosophy" or "the evolution of the English language." If you remember "evolution = slow change", then you pretty much have it. In *biology* it means *slow change to a POPULATION*. This is measured in changes in the frequencies of genes within the population.