Evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Saturday, March 22, 2008, 11:02 (5886 days ago)

The discussion on knowledge, belief and agnosticism for some reason cut short a nascent discussion on evolution (see The Real Alternative to Design), and left me wanting more. But the more that I want comes down again to origins and beliefs. I have no problem at all believing in the principle of natural selection. I can quite see that a green caterpillar on a green leaf in a green forest will have a better chance of survival than a red, white and blue one. And I can quite see that a longer beak will be better than a shorter beak at grubbing insects out of nooks and crannies. That existing organs will gradually undergo improvements and refinements is well within my grasp of comprehension. But what eludes me is how organs originated. - "Mutations" is a great sounding word, and it makes the process sound simple: a couple of strands change places, and hey presto, you have the start of a new system. But when you go back to that first hereditary molecule and you look at what has "evolved" out of it, credibility (for me) is stretched way beyond breaking point. I don't want to go into the "designer" theory here ... that creates different but equally insoluble problems ... but only into the chance theory. Because I'm struggling to understand how people can have a belief, an inner conviction that unconscious matter by means of random change can create totally new, immensely complex machines out of but also within itself. - The problem in a nutshell is that I cannot convince myself that the following happened: chance brought together the ingredients to form a living, self-replicating molecule (abiogenesis). Chance then reshuffled the component parts in such a way that it created (even over millions of years) the brand new concepts and mechanisms of a nervous system with sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell; sexual reproduction; heart, blood, lungs; a digestive system with organs like liver, kidneys etc; limbs for locomotion; and a brain which eventually enabled matter to become conscious of itself (maybe the most astonishing advance of them all). Each one a new "invention", depending on new, random and functioning mutations. It all happened somehow, because here we are, and so there has to be an explanation, but whatever explanation you come up with beggars belief. And if it beggars belief, how do you believe in it?