Evolution means gradual change. Usually the word implies not just change but gradual improvement or progress as well. Nowadays the word is generally used to refer to a specific theory about life on Earth. According to this theory,

1. All (or nearly all) living things on earth are related to each other genealogically; in other words, life on earth forms a vast family, with a single common ancestor;

2. Life on earth has changed gradually from relatively simple forms to include relatively complex forms; and

3. This progressive change was caused by a natural process rather than being driven primarily by miraculous or supernatural intervention.

The question that this book considers is whether evolution is fact or fiction-that is, whether life on earth has evolved naturally from a relatively simple common ancestor to the complex forms that exist on earth today.

Evolutinists believe that life evolved accidentally from the comparative simplicity...