Table of Contents

Preface

1. Scientific Theories and Laws

2. The First Decade (1936-1946)

3. Relativity

4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)

5. Quantum Mechanics

6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)

7. The Big Bang

8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)

9. The Non-Bang

10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)

11. The Never-Bang

12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)

13. Evolution

14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)

15. The Theory of More than Everything

16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)

17. Now What?

18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)

Appendix A Paintings

Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe

Appendix C Musical Compositions

Bibliography

Chapter 0-Page 0

By the way, a female ass and a male horse can have offspring called hinnies. It's amazing, the things you learn when you're not even trying.

We know millions of species live on Earth, but recently, an expedition checking ocean water discovered millions of species we didn't know anything about. These little animals differ from each other in different parts of the oceans (a hint about how evolution works). The land and sea carry about as much life as they can, and if you weighed all of the living things above the ground, possibly ten times that mass lives underground.

A species is a type of animal, plant, or fungus different enough from another type that we call it something else. If this method doesn't sound very sure of itself, consider this: We can't even decide if certain very small creatures are plants or animals.

IS THERE MUCH EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION

I hoped we could go ahead now and describe evolution, but I read a rather startling item in the paper recently. According to a poll, only about half the people in the U.S. think the Theory of Evolution is true. Is that possible? Early in the 2008 primaries, half of our presidential candidates also announced their disbelief in evolution. Perhaps they just said that in order to win fifty percent of the votes, but didn't we settle the evolution question in the last century?

A few months ago, I had a visit from two Jehovah Witnesses, and I asked them if they believe in evolution. They interpret the Bible quite literally, but even they said yes. They held only one exception: Humans did not evolve; God created humans exactly as we see them now. Interesting break in the overall concept, but we can at least start talking about evolution before Jehovah Witnesses shut the book.

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Sections

WHAT IS A SPECIES

IS THERE EVOLUTION EVIDENCE

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION

WHY DOES ANYTHING EVOLVE

WHAT IS PURE CHANCE

WHAT TWO STEPS IN EVOLUTION

WHERE DID LIFE COME FROM

EVOLUTION TOWARDS LIFE

EVOLUTION OF LIFE

EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE

EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL LIFE

EVOLUTION OF US

FINAL THOUGHTS

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