An Origins Glossary

compiled by Steve Badger

Adaptation--An organism's change in form, structure, or behavior (supposedly) to fit environmental conditions better

Anthropic principle--Posits that everything about the universe tends toward making life (especially human life) possible and sustaining it ("fine tunig of the universe)

Anthropomorphism--Describing a non-human (like God) with human characteristics or attributes

Apologetics--The defense of a position

Biology--Science that studies life; the theory of evolution is considered the foundational theory by virtually all nonChristian biologists, and many (if not most) Christian biologist

Causality--Asserts that every physical reality must have a cause for its existence

Cosmogony--Any account (theory, model) of the origin of the universe

Cosmology--A branch of astronomy that addresses the history and structure of the universe

Cosmos--The universe and everything in it

Creationism--Typically refers to Young-Earth Creationism (which see)

Concurrence--

Complementarity--

Deism--Pictures the Supreme Being as an "absentee God" who, after creating the universe and its laws, never interferes but allows everything to run by itself

Empirical--Derived from and based on observation (the physical senses)

Entropy--A measure of the degree of disorder in the universe; the greater the disorder, the greater the entropy; related to the 2nd law of thermodynamics (which see)

Environmental tracking--Variation within the already existing catalog of genes; provides for adaptation to the environment within the limits of its available genetic information

Evolutionism--A philosophical position that asserts all of life, society, culture is getting better on its own

Falsification principle--Claims that a proposition is meaningful (and true) if and only if a test can be devised (at least in theory) that could prove it false; note it is self-refuting (See Verifiability principle)

Fideism--A philosophical position that asserts that all knowledge is ultimately based only on faith

Fossil--Remains of plant or animal life found in the earth's strata (typically rocks)

God-of-the-Gaps--Uses God to explain anything that science cannot explain; notice the position it puts Christianity in: when science finds a naturalistic explanation for that which was previously explained by God, He is increasing excluded from our thinking

Genetics--Branch of biology that studies principles of heredity

Geology--Science that deals with the earth and the materials that compose its layers (rocks, etc.)

Homologous structures--Structures that have similar functions or morphologies, e.g., a person's legs and a dog's hind legs; they may have different functions, e.g., a person's arms and a bird's wings

Humanism--A philosophy that denies the existence of a Supreme Being and sees humankind as able to solve all of their problems

Intelligent design--Believes the physical realm must have had Someone who designed it

Imago Dei--Latin phrase meaning "image of God"; applied to the creation of humans

Kind--A biblical word indicating a basic type; a less well-defined term than the term species (which see below)

Law (of science)--Conclusions that are thought to be universally established; thus we believe them to be constant and invariable throughout the universe; in biology often called a principle

Logical positivism--Claims that propositions have meaning if and only if they are verifiable by logic or observation

Macroevolution--One species changing into another species over time

Mega-evolution--Macroevolution

Microevolution--Observable minor changes within a species

Missing links--Undiscovered, intermediate forms between early life forms and their modern evolutionary descendants

Model--A framework of ideas used to organize and present data meaningfully

Molecular taxonomy--Attempts of use biochemical similarities to determine how closely different species are on an evolutionary scale

Mutation--A change in the genetic material producing a new, inheritable trait; almost never beneficial but typically lethal

Naive realism--The universe and reality is generally as people perceive it

Naturalism--Rejects all supernatural causes; provides natural causes for all events

Natural selection--Posits that nature allows those best suited to survive and reproduce

Objective--The conclusion does not depend on the perceptions of the person making the observation and drawing the conclusions (See subjective)

Paleontology--The study of fossil animals and plants

Phenomenon--An observable event

Principle of uniformity--Says that "The present is the key to the past"; thus, we can understand past processes by observing those acting today (See uniformitarianism)

Radiometric dating--Uses the amounts (ratios) and half-lives of radioactive isotopes to estimate the age of an object

Realism--Claims that material objects exist independently, they do not depend upon mental processes in any way

Science (natural)--Attempts to gain an understanding of the physical realm by using powers of observation and experimentation to find and test explanations

Scientism--Assumes that all truth can be discovered by the scientific method and only by this method (note it is self-refuting)

Second Law Of Thermodynamics--States that a closed system left to itself tends to move from order to disorder; a/k/a the universal law of decay; (See entropy above)

Species--A category of biological classification; an interbreeding gene pool; it's poorly defined

Speciation--Means the formation of new species from existing ones

Subjective--The conclusion depends on the perceptions of the person making the observation and drawing the conclusions (See objective)

Teleological argument--Affirms that the order of the universe and life strongly argue for a "Cosmic Designer" (God)

Teleology--

Teleonomy--The information stored within a living thing; includes the idea of something having a design and purpose

Theism--Believes that God is the Supreme and Necessary Being

Thermodynamics--A branch of physics that studies the dynamics of heat energy including the transfer or exchange of heat

Uniformitarianism--Assumes that all past causes were natural like those observed today (See Principle of Uniformity)

Verifiability principle--Claims that a proposition is meaningful (or true) if and only if it is purely definitional or empirically verifiable; note some see it as self-refuting (See Falsification principle)

Vestigial--Means not fully developed or useful (e.g., nipples on males, vermiform appendix)

Bibliography