Several of the great natural scientists, struck by the very narrow divergence of traits between assorted species, and the many links that exist among the most unique classes of animals and plants. They also observed that quite a few species do vary considerably in their forms, colors, and habits. Thus they conceived the notion that the individuals in a species may be all developed from one another. The most eminent of these early naturalists was a great French naturalist, Lamarck, who published an impressive book in which he endeavored to prove that all animals — all species — are descended from other species of animals.
He ascribed the modification of species mainly to the event of changes in the conditions of life and particularly to the desires and efforts of the animals themselves to improve their condition, which lead to a change in various characteristics, owing to the accepted physiological phenomenon that all organs are strengthened by perpetual use, while they are minimized or even altogether lost by disuse. The statements of Lamarck did not gratify many of his colleagues, and though some accepted the position that closely related species had derived from each other, the standard impression of the educated public was that each species was a “special creation” quite independent of all others. On the other hand, most biologists believed that the difference from one species to another for any reason was impossible, and that the “origin of species” was an unsolved and in all probability unsolvable problem.
Another outstanding work dealing with the matter of common ancestry was the renowned Vestiges of Creation, penned anonymously, but now known to have been written by Robert Chambers. In Chamber’s work, the action of natural laws was delineated throughout the universe as a system of growth and development, and it was reasoned that the assorted species of animals and plants had evolved in orderly successiveness from each other by the process of undiscovered laws of evolution aided by the action of environmental factors. Although Chamber’s book had a significant effect in shaping common opinion as to the extreme improbability of “special creation” of each species, it had little effect upon naturalists, because it made no effort to contend with the issue in detail, or to show in any single case how the allied species of a genus could have developed.
At present, in the evolution creationism debate, the matter of “special creation” is defended unilaterally and quite fiercely by creationists as an irrefutable law not only of nature, but of God. Divine laws are not to be argued, and thus, the evolution creationism debate remains in an impasse.
Michelangelo Adam and god attests to the genius emerging in the evolution of art and science.