But not everyone will consider serious scientific investigations boring. For example, I know biology and chemistry very well and I can easily understand all complicated terms used by scientists. I like to read special books on these branches of science. I’ve always been interested in all discoveries connected with physiology, genetics, microbiology, biotechnology, virology, evolutional biology.

I like to read scientific fiction, I believe that aliens exist and we’ll meet them someday. Also, my granddad is a physicist, and when I was a little child, he taught me to use a telescope and told me a lot of interesting facts about the origin of the Universe, about the births and deaths of stars and planets, about the structure of comets and asteroids. We often watch the Moon, Mars and Venice together now. So, I am crazy about astronomy and space exploration. News about breakthroughs in these fields always draws my attention.

When we hear the word “evolution”, we often think: “Oh, that’s what Darwin discovered!” Yes, Darwin did a lot for the understanding of the fact that our world is not static, all animals are somehow related to each other and natural factors contribute to the process of evolution. But he was not the first man who spoke about it. We can find primitive but convincing ideas of natural development and changes in the ancient religious systems of India, China, Greece, Egypt. A lot of famous scientists before Darwin spoke of evolution but he was the first one to create a scientific theory. But afterwards his ideas were criticized because Darwin took into account mostly morphological criteria and based his research on the principles of natural selection, fight for survival and inherited diversity and knew nothing about DNA, mutations and gene flows.

Why am I so keen on it? Because evolutional biology can tell us who we really are, what our place in this world is and what may happen to the humankind and other living creatures in the future. Modern science has achieved great heights in this field but there are certain factors that may affect our involvement in the discussions on this topic. One of the most important factors is our religious position. You know, there are people who think that a person of faith must believe that God rules the world according to His own purpose, and through modern technologies and scientific achievements we learn secrets we shouldn’t know. There are also those who believe only in the “triumph of reason” and deny religious values though sometimes they should be put on the first place (for example, when we decide to make human cloning legal).

I think it’s strange and silly to think that the world around us originated and developed on its own way without any interference from above. Yes, there are certain laws of nature that are unique for the whole Universe and almost all processes that take place inside living organisms, in natural environment, in outer space can be described and explained with the help of modern science. But then we should ask ourselves a question: who established these laws? Of course, there are those who try to prove that the Nature itself is powerful enough for self-development and self-regulation (there are even theories based on the hypothesis that the Earth is alive and intelligent). I can’t believe it’s true.

I tend to think that evolution exists and it’s God who controls the process. Maybe, it’s a kind of experiment, who knows…
I know about a never-ending collision between Church and Science. If you ask my opinion about Christian Creation and evolution, I will say the following. I’ve read the Bible. I did it not because I was forced or advised to do it, no. Being honest, there are few religious people among my relatives and friends, most of them are pure atheists. But I’ve always believed that there are powerful sacred forces that lead us through time and space, affect the destiny of the humankind and the development of our planet, help people in difficult situations and punish them for bad deeds and thoughts. I decided to read the Bible because I wanted to get answers to many questions.
I’m sure the New Testament can become a spiritual guide for a thinking and noble person because it gives everyone a chance to become better, shows us vivid examples of self-sacrifice, honesty, wisdom, kindness and proves that God loves all people equally. But the Old Testament… I don’t want to discuss the idea that the Jews are the chosen ones and God, who is extremely angry and unpredictable, cares only about their happiness and is merciless towards all other peoples. Bloody sacrificial offerings, incest… I was shocked…

We are talking about the origin of the world and evolution, right. So, is the origin of the world described in the Book of Genesis seems strange and doubtful to me. The origin of people seems even stranger. I’m sure that the humans couldn’t be the first living creatures that appeared in the world. They were the last. It’s a proved fact that living organisms keep becoming more and more complicated and this tendency continues even nowadays. Maybe, we humans are not the best ones when it comes to evaluating and comparing us with animals in strength, speed, etc.
But we possess the most powerful intellect on this planet. We are the only ones who have religion, art, written language. We are the dominating species nowadays. But to get so high, our ancestors had to go through billions of small and total changes. I think it’s possible that we and monkeys had one forefather but we turned out to be a bit luckier.

I know my thoughts may sound silly or childish but I always say what I think, I’m not afraid to do it and I’m ready to accept all criticism.
I believe that Life constantly changes on our planet and the biological evolution of animals develops in one direction – living creatures become more and more similar to God. I think that we were not “created in the image of God” from the very beginning. What for? Why did God make first intelligent beings that resembled Him (or Her) and then a great number of “simpler ones”? I look at gradual complication of various organs and body systems from Pisces to Amphibians, from Reptiles to Birds and Mammals, from rodents to people and doubt that humans existed forever. Are we the terminal point in evolution? Nobody knows.

I can give links to several sites.
The first page is devoted to the process of evolution in general and the information may seem a bit complicated in English but actually it belongs to contemporary school program.
http://www.onelife.com/evolve/evolution.html

The second link leads to a short report about human evolution.
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/biology/humanevolution/humevol.html

The third link is the most interesting one. It leads to an essay of a man who tries to prove that religious and scientific views on the problem of evolution are not opposite in reality.
http://www.onelife.com/evolve/darwin.html

Science tells us how the Universe and the Man appeared (I believe someday we’ll know how exactly it was). Religion helps us to understand who made it possible and for what. Only if we combine them and use both of them for active investigation of our bodies and souls and the world around, we’ll be able to comprehend our true mission on this planet.