Two sides of the irreducible complexity argument: dhw Pt1 (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 01:28 (5336 days ago) @ xeno6696

dhw:> So that's what I mean that evolution only seems to happen when it has to. It is this particular segment of evolution that David (and you?) seem to be at odds with.[/i]-I don't think that at all. I think that evolution can happen both and without environmental challenges: from epigenetics, from random mutation, and during mitosis as mistakes. Whatever is first presented to nature is what gets sorted out by selection. Remember the first part is passive, the second part (selection), active And the direction of Darwin's evolution is supposed to be directionless. The dinosaurs were a 250 million year detour and there were others like the trillobites, another 1/4 million year detour.- Matt:> My point of contention with David on this issue is on being able to determine whether the mutations are random or not. I don't think you can.-I think they all are random, except the epigenetic ones. Those appeared to be mediated within the cells. If, on the other hand, you meant to say that it may be impossible to sort out epigenetic from the others then I agree.