The Darwinian evolution paradigm is based on the evolution paradigm and forms a “bundle of theories” that are contrary to the special creation paradigm. It concerns the origin and development of organic life on earth.
1. Science and History
The subject of natural history is primarily natural science and secondarily history. The laws and generalizations of science have greater significance than the purported actions and events of recorded history. If a scientific law or generalization is sufficiently attested, then it must be accepted, whether or not it fits any historical writing.
2. Naturalism Assumed
Nature is all that exists or ever existed or ever will exist. Nature is self-existing, self-caused, and self-sustaining. Matter, motion, and the laws of nature are all there is.
3. Uniformity of Natural History
Natural rates of change are uniform or nearly uniform and so may be extrapolated to large spans of time. Uniformitarianism is the main method of inference in natural history.
4. Purposelessness of Natural History
Natural history has no purpose or center. Earth arose via the purposeless operation of natural laws. Life could have arisen elsewhere and probably has in some form.
5. Unlimited Change
The laws of nature allow virtually limitless change to take place when there is sufficient time. Chance variations have occurred of the type and frequency needed to develop current species without any design or purpose other than survival.
6. Biblical Insignificance
There is no singular document about ancient history. Human beings in the ancient past were more primitive than moderns, and so should not be expected to know much.
7. Earth is Old
There have been vast ages of time in the past, on the order of billions of years. The biblical chronology is either wrong or must be interpreted to allow billions of years. In any case, it is science that determines the chronology of the earth, not any human writings (cf. #1).
8. Life Began Naturally
Abiogenesis is the study of the origin of life from non-life. This is an area of active research. Whatever is determined, it is certain that life began naturally, with no supernatural intervention.
9. Earth Began Primitive
The early earth was primitive. Organic life did not exist at first but developed over long ages of time via the operation of natural laws.
10. One Kind of Life
All organic life developed from a single organism which evolved over long ages of time to evolve into millions of species. The difference between different organisms is only a matter of degree of complexity. They are all the same kind of entity with the same essence.
11. Humans Not Special
Human beings are part of nature. The difference between humans and other organisms is solely a matter of degree, not kind or essence.
12. Regional Catastrophes
Uniformity is the main theme of earth history. The catastrophic events that have occurred have all been regional, not universal. Death has always been part of life; there was no catastrophe that originated death. No world-wide catastrophe changed the geology of the earth, and nothing has happened to change all human languages. Any purported evidence to the contrary must be either false or falsely interpreted.
2008