All human cultures, past and present, have creation myths. Where we come from and how we got here are questions that have puzzled human beings since the beginning of time.

Unfortunately, not a single piece of evidence exists to confirm that any of these stories actually happened. Norse or Egyptian mythologies, the Mayan or Abrahamic creation myths, none describe actual events. They are all fiction.

How do we differentiate between reality and fiction? This question seems absurd. The answer is simple: Reality is everything that exists or has existed. Ok, but how do we know if something exists or has existed? It is easy to know that dogs, pine trees, the sea, and the moon exist. But do atoms exist? We have never seen one with the naked eye. Is it true that dinosaurs existed? We have never run into one.

Our senses, sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste, do an excellent job convincing us that certain things are real, like fresh coffee, soft velvet, and a doorbell. But if we were only guided by our senses, we would not know about the existence of atoms, dinosaurs, other galaxies, or radio waves.

We human beings have managed to extend the limits of our senses by using technology. We can confirm the existence of a much broader and less obvious reality than the one we experience every day. With the help of microscopes, we have discovered organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye, such as bacteria. Scanning tunneling microscopes can take photographs of atoms. Telescopes enable us to confirm the existence of distant objects, such as other galaxies. We have converted electromagnetic waves into images and sounds, proving that these waves exist.

But what about the dinosaurs? We cannot build a time machine and travel back in time to confirm that they existed. We must use other methods, such as looking for evidence beneath our feet. And that evidence is fossils. Scientists understand how fossils are formed, and we can trust that they offer us a reliable picture of the past.

So far, so good. Using our senses, developing technologies, and searching for clues beneath the Earth's surface are all ways to discern reality from fiction. But how do we explain what lies beyond what our senses or technology can show us? How do we know that something is real? For example, how do we know that the Earth revolves around the Sun when our senses tell us that the Sun revolves around the Earth.

It is necessary to resort to another methodology to answer these questions. We need to build a model of our reality. Humans rely on logical reasoning to make models that simulate what is happening around them. Currently, mathematical equations and computers are fed empirical data and used to determine if reality behaves like a model. If so, the results are equivalent to what happens in the real world.

Science is based on logical reasoning and evidence. Applied science leads to new technologies. Science and technology are the best tools to understand how reality works.

Those who do not understand this allow themselves to be fooled by non-scientific fields of study. Beliefs not based on logical reasoning and evidence lead to a mistaken view of the world. Specifically, whoever questions an irrefutable theory like evolution, with the multitude of evidence supporting it, also has a mistaken view about the origin of biodiversity.

Albeit imperfect, science is the best approach humans have devised to find better step-by-step explanations of how the world works. It has two characteristics that make it unique.

The first characteristic is that the body of scientific knowledge builds on previous ideas and is constantly growing. Once one fact is understood, it can be used to obtain another fact. For example, we can build buildings because many individuals derived scientific conclusions about triangles, area, volume, electricity, hydraulics, statics, engineering, soil, materials, earthquakes, etc. Thanks to the work of many different scientists, we have access to global positioning systems today. To name a few examples, scientists developed Cartesian geometry and discovered the theories of gravitational attraction and relativity. They developed the technology to build satellites and invent computers.

The second characteristic is that science is testable or refutable. Scientific ideas can be proven false. For example, the idea that electromagnetism traveled in waves was an accepted hypothesis in physics for many years. That hypothesis explained the colors of visible light, radio waves, X-rays, etc. When physicists realized that certain phenomena could not be explained with this hypothesis, they abandoned the idea that light was strictly a wave. A new hypothesis was proposed, which stated light is also transmitted in the form of particles. This made it possible to explain black-body radiation and the photoelectric effect. The hypothesis also gave rise to quantum mechanics, the theory that best explains what is observed in the fields of chemistry and physics today.

The ideological revolution provoked by Darwin's brilliant writings still influences us almost two centuries later. It makes people question their religious beliefs. If evolution happened, the following are true:

• The Earth is not static; it undergoes changes.

• Species change over time.

• Most likely, all religious creation stories are false.

Today, only one story has the evidence to truly describe where we come from: evolution. We do not know how life originated, but once the common ancestor of all living things appeared on Earth, evolution explains what followed in detail. It explains how plants, birds, mammals, intelligent primates called humans, and thousands of other species came to be throughout Earth's long history. Evolution is the only story about the origin of biodiversity that we can trust. As Jerry A. Coyne says: "Mysteries about how we evolved should not distract us from the indisputable fact that we did evolve."