How to decide is there a deity (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, January 09, 2009, 14:26 (5604 days ago) @ George Jelliss

Chance works within the constraints of Law. 
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> In the case of the evolution of life the law within which chance works is the law of natural selection. - No argument with the first statement. And really none with the second. The problem in my mind is I view chance mutation and natural selection (CM-NS)as a passive process. Natural selection can act ONLY when presented with a variety (two or more) of organisms which can be in competition under the constraints of natural phenomena. Then the better one or ones emerge as survivors. Chance is passive, natural selection is active over periods of time as a species dies out. What I have described is like pushing a rope forward from its back end. Beneficial CM appears at slow rates in species and NS acts slowly. The entire process is slow. That is why I asked, has there been enough time. NS cannot suck chance forward, as some of the Darwin Just-So stories imply. - This is why the new dicoveries that DNA/RNA has other mechanisms to drive adaptation are so important. But they still do not explain the de novo appearance of the Cambrian explosion. Darwin's theory at this point only explains microadaptation, species variation, not new species introduction.