"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The first verse of Genesis and potentially the most quoted and debated statement ever written, read, or spoken in the history of man. This verse and following thirty-three supplementary verses tell the story of creation from the perspective of a man named Moses, which therefore, is the belief of conventional Judaism and Christianity. At the time when this account was penned the word "science" did not exist in the modern sense. This word however, which by definition means a systematic way to acquire knowledge derived from observation and study would (as inherent to its nature) lead to observations, which may or may not coincide with Moses" account of creation. In the articles from Charles Darwin's Origin of Species and J. H. Gladstone's Points of Supposed Collision Between the Scriptures and Natural Science the two minds compare modern science and Christian theology in order to address issues on both sides.
.
Contrary to popular understanding Charles Darwin was not in fact an atheist. He like many pioneering minds studied and worked in science to unveil truth. His work in the article from Origin of Species begins with his theory of natural selection in which he uses (then) modern scientific discoveries to support his concept of a gradual development of a species in accordance with environmental variables and the effect it has on life as a whole. He then as example refers to various birds that do odd things, which as the result of adaptation helps them to survive and propagate the species in the given environment. In this he says that natures diversity is normal and may or may not be the result of a grand design.
.
Darwin feels as the result of adaptation nature is filled with much beauty that relates directly to the inhabitants view of beauty. From the color and patterns of flowers to the birdsong many beautiful things are not specific to the species, which the adaptation was designed for.
