How delightfully simple it would be if the word “evolution” did not refer to anything but facts: the factual descent of biological species and their mutual relationships. Then we could leave the evolution debate to the professional insights of biologists, geneticists, biophysicists, and paleontologists with nary another thought.

Things are different. The problem of evolution does not only concern the phylogenetic succession of species. It also touches the world where the species originated, the becoming of the planet Earth, and the origin of stars and galaxies. It even has to do with the Big Bang and the early inception of time and space. For life did not originate in complete isolation. It gathered itself out of cosmic energy and organic molecules. It nestled itself in an expansive time–space reality. Vexing questions arise here. How could life make a place for itself in a world of energy and radiation? How was it able to survive in the midst of a shattering surplus of matter?

Evolution, beyond the cosmic past, also has to do with the continuation of the story: the self-maintenance of the species on earth and their expansion in the biosphere. Life manifested itself in bacteria and algae, moulds and sponges, plants and animals, in short, in an overwhelming array of new life forms. Yes, it organized itself in a taxonomic diversity of increasingly complex kingdoms. Nettlesome questions arise again. Whence this newness, this abundant wealth of life forms? What explains the fundamental difference between the kingdoms?