Overview of some of the main statements on the origin of life, species and mankind

Natural Religions and Myths of Different Peoples (e.g. Greek Mythology)

Atlas, Greek god

These people believed in the creation of water by a sun god or other supreme beings. The different species had been created by one or more gods and had afterwards remained unchanged. In the same way, the god or the gods had created an ancestor for humans.

The followers believe in a divine genesis approximately 6000 years ago. A single divine creation is believed to have happened, which brought to life all the existing species.

Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832)

He believed in reoccurring creations after catastrophes. This means, that for example after the last ice age – in his opinion – all species were generated anew.

Jean Baptise Lamarck (1744 - 1829)
He believed that a giraffe, for example, has such a long neck because it had to stretch it all the time in order to reach the high leaves of an acacia. With time, the neck became longer and he claimed, that this information settled in the genes within the lifespan of the individual and was passed on to the descendants. So a short neck on giraffes swiftly turned into a long one. Qualities that were not needed were not handed down. However, the prime origin remained in the dark with Lamarck.

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
His explanation of the origin of the species is based on his theory of the change of species due to variation and selection. That is to say, mutants may occur within any species. That is called genetic variation. Afterwards, selection takes over. If the respective mutant is able to survive in its environment, it will reproduce and form an individual species. Otherwise it became extinct before it actually even came to exist. By the way, Darwin was the first to let humans descend from apes.

Today the creation of life is seen as the result of chemical evolution. The evolution thereafter is a fluctuation of mutation, selection and other evolutionary factors. The origin of humans is explained by the evolution theory as well and we have the same lineage as primates.