04.30.07
Dawkins’ sleight of hand
No scientist would argue that evolution is the result of “chance.” To the contrary, natural selection acts on natural variation to select progressively more reproductively fit individuals. See Richard Dawkins’ book “Climbing Mount Improbable” for a lucid explanation of the process.
Actually Dawkins completely confused the issue here. Darwinism has its back to the wall on this point, and the need to make natural selection ‘non-random’ shows the hidden desperation of what is obviously a flawed theory.
creeper said,
May 1, 2007 at 10:59 am
It is you who has it confused. The theory of evolution is hardly flawed on account of this so-called issue, which amounts to no more than a little sleight-of-hand on the part of those who wish to question the believability of the theory of evolution.
Natural selection is a process that out of necessity must include any and all potential input factors (which one can think of as random), but it is not itself a completely random process, as it results in an imposition of order with regard to reproductive fitness.
To put it very simply: what goes in is for the most part random, what comes out is slightly less random, as it is skewed toward improved ability to reproduce. This then becomes the input for subsequent iterations of the process. Subsequent iterations result in an increasing trend toward reproductive fitness, which is not, on the whole, random.