Evolution Part I of...we'll see

On this, the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, we gather to ponder the concept of evolution. Charles didn't invent evolution, of course, nor was he even the first to contemplate the possibility. What he did, however, was perceive connections between species and realize that perhaps they branch from each other and develop over long periods of time to adapt to their environment. Finches with larger beaks able to eat the local nuts tended to parent little finchlings with larger beaks able to eat the nuts, etc. Little beak toters tended to starve or travel elsewhere with smaller nuts, I suppose.

But before we get into all of that, there is a more critical starting place. Ponder these two terrifyingly obvious yet mind numbingly impossible scenarios, one of which, it would seem, must be true: either the universe has always existed, or it has not always existed. Your options for the reality of the universe in which you live are unthinkable eternity going back to infinity or unimaginable nothingness which gave birth to a rapidly expanding universe capable of, not only harboring, but in effect creating life itself.

Man, in his search for meaning has increased his knowledge of detail of the universe, yet this detail seems never ending whether abstracted outwardly or inwardly. The word atom comes from the Greek, atomos, which effectively means indivisble. Yet, today, we know that the atom is a tiny universe unto itself.

Until next time...cheers.