Natural Selection (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 10:08 (4552 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: 2) Nobody has ever at any time at any point in any way even indirectly, implicitly or remotely suggested that NS should be removed from evolution! My objection is to the ruse of synonymising the two terms, as is sometimes used to divert attention from the gaps in the overall theory. NS is the stage of evolution that follows on from reproduction, adaptation, innovation. All of these are integral phases of the one process we call “evolution”, but “reproduction”, “adaptation”, “innovation”, "natural selection" and “evolution” do not mean the same thing (i.e. they are not synonymous). Does that clear the methodological materialist mathematical mud for you?

DAVID: Bravo. You did a better job of taming Matt than I did.

Thank you, David. Only on reading this do I realize that I got so carried away by Matt's muddy mess of muddled m's that I left out the main item in my own list of non-synonyms! Thanks to the mysterious and magical powers invested in me by the almighty Neil, I can step back in time and put in the missing words.

I don't want to tame Matt. His unpredictability keeps us all on our toes. In this particular case, I just want him to acknowledge what you and I regard as obvious.