There is much misinformation about these two words, and yet, understanding them is perhaps the crucial prerequisite for understanding the creation/evolution issue.

One of the very strongest arguments against evolution has always been the tendency for every system, living or dead, individual or societal, moral or mundane, to wear out, deteriorate, or die. As is common to all experience, nothing, absolutely nothing, gets better on its own.

Darwin's book Origin of Species, published in 1859, proposed the concept of evolution by purely naturalistic causes, especially natural selection. His idea was that the small variations observed within a population of plants or animals would lead to large changes, given a fortuitous environmental change which favored the variant's opportunity for survival and reproduction.

Most arguments against the possibility of mutation as a mechanism for evolution revolve around two premises: that mutations are almost always harmful, and that the idea of their improving rather than harming organisms is contrary to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which tells us that matter and energy naturally tend toward greater randomness rather than greater order and complexity.