Skewering James Shapiro (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, August 30, 2012, 03:26 (4469 days ago) @ David Turell

Another reviewer can't back off from natural selection:-http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/4/4/423.full-"The matter of selection is then virtually ignored until the final section of the book. There we read, as one of nine bullet points that summarize the core message: "The role of selection is to eliminate evolutionary novelties that prove to be non-functional and interfere with adaptive needs. Selection operates as a purifying but not creative force [emphasis added]." -I cannot imagine many evolutionary biologists subscribing to that position."-But there are many. Natural selection cannot operate unless presented with variations, and natural selection does not create variations, it can only filter them. That filtering function is very important, but is secondary to initial novel appearances. That is so obvious I don't know why there are two schools of thought. Innovation then filtration, why is that so hard to understand. Two parts of evolution, both equal in their own way.