ABSTRACT
In common usage, earthly evolution is generally understood to be the series of changes from simpler to more complex, or from “lower” to “higher” biological forms, that have produced the present make-up of life on our Earth. Before we even begin to examine the details of those changes we should recognize that merely to use the word “evolution” in this context acknowledges that change occurs over very great time periods. Awareness of evolution is so common today that it may surprise a modern reader to learn that recognition of the occurrence of long term change is relatively new. Until quite recently, historically speaking, it had been universally assumed that the earth and its host of living things were unaltered since an initial creation, except for the events of recorded or spoken history. And, in Western belief, the total elapsed time since the seven days of The Creation in biblical Genesis was, arguably, quite short. For example, counting back the various genealogies given there, Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656) established1 the total time since creation such that the common year 2000 will be 6004 anno mundi. With somewhat different reckoning it will be 5760 of the Hebrew calendar.
