> -----Original Message-----
> From: evolution-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:evolution-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On Behalf Of Mark Phillips
> Sent: Monday, June 14, 1999 5:38 PM
> To: evolution@calvin.edu
> Subject: Precisely what is "Natural Selection"?
> Anyway, later he came to talking about evolution. He said he didn't
> have a problem with evolution as "change". The big problem with
> Darwin's theory, as a Christian, was the notion of "natural selection"
> (emphasis on the "natural"). He said Darwin used the term *natural*
> selection to distinguish it from *supernatural* selection. And that
> the concept was basically that through pure chance, without God,
> selection took place causing species to evolve (or something like
> that).
<snip>
> So my question is: was my minister mistaken on the concept of "natural
> selection", or is it true that in Darwin's original formulation of the
> concept, it necessitated the absence of divine activity?
Darwin coined the term *natural selection* as an analogy in nature to the
*artificial selection* performed by animal and plant breeders. It had
nothing to do with "*supernatural* selection" nor with the existence of a
Creator.
Don Frack
dcfrack@sowest.net