Feeling Reality (General)

by dhw, Friday, February 18, 2011, 12:03 (4837 days ago) @ George Jelliss

George has responded to my response by quoting what he evidently sees as a contradiction: -dhw: "I have never, ever described evolution by the processes of natural selection as being the appearance of things by chance" EH?-dhw: "it continues to baffle me that anyone can truly grasp the immensity of all these different wonders, and yet still gloss them over with language and place his faith in chance to produce them."-Yet again let me point out that natural selection is the process that decides which organs and organisms will survive. It is a key factor in evolution, it is NOT governed by chance, and I have never said that it was. But natural selection does not PRODUCE the organs and organisms from which it selects. These come about via processes of replication, adaptation and innovation, all of which entail a mechanism of (so far) unfathomable complexity whose origin you attribute to chance. This mechanism produces the "wonders" I have described, with the process also depending to a large extent on chance (random mutations, changing environments). If you leave out the chance-assembled mechanism, the random mutations and the changing circumstances, what remains? A load of identical bugs for NS to select from!
 
Nevertheless, I remain in what Matt calls the "default" position of no belief, and therefore find myself arguing against those who do have a belief. With you I put the case against chance; with David I put the case against a designer; Matt and I are constantly disagreeing although we sit on the same fence. And so, George, if your misunderstanding of my position really is what is driving you away, I hope these posts will have clarified it and we can move on. Such disagreements and exchanges are the be-all and maybe end-all of this forum, and as you will have gathered from the universally warm welcome back, we all regard your contributions as invaluable.