>>>Chris Cogan: ...
1. Selection is not random. This is *blatantly* obvious...
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DNAunion: Here is something Darwin had to say about this.
[quote]"It may be well to remark that with all beings there must be much
fortuitous destruction, which can have little or no influence on the course
of natural selection."[/quote] (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (By
Means of Natural Selection Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the
Struggle for Life), The Modern Library, 1998, p116)
DNAunion: That's worth repeating: "It may be well to remark that with all
beings there must be much fortuitous destruction, which can have little or no
influence on the course of natural selection." Darwin continued:
[quote]"For instance a vast number of eggs or seeds are annually devoured,
and these could be modified through natural selection only if they varied in
some manner which protected them from their enemies. Yet many of these eggs
or seeds would perhaps, if not destroyed, have yielded individuals better
adapted to their conditions of life than any of those which happened to
survive."[/quote] ((Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (By Means of
Natural Selection Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for
Life), The Modern Library, 1998, p116-117)
DNAunion: So many of the young that would grow up to be more fit are lost by
blind, random death while still young. Darwin continued:
[quote]"So again a vast number of mature animals and plants, whether or not
they be the best adapted to their conditions, must be annually destroyed by
accidental causes which would not be in the least degree mitigated by certain
changes of structure of constitution which would in other ways be beneficial
to the species." (Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (By Means of Natural
Selection Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life),
The Modern Library, 1998, p116-117)[/quote]
DNAunion: Ditto - death determined by chance, not fitness. I will just
provide the rest of the quote I clipped without further comment.
[quote]"But let the destruction of the adults be ever so heavy, if the number
which can exist in any district be not wholly kept down by such causes, - or
again let the destruction of eggs or seeds be so great that only a hundredth
or a thousandth part are developed, - yet of those which do survive, the best
adapted individuals, supposing that there is any variability in a favourable
direction, will tend to propagate their kind in large numbers than the less
well adapted. [b]If the numbers be wholly kept down by the causes just
indicated, as will often have been the case, natural selection will be
powerless in certain beneficial directions[/b]; but this is no valid
objection to its efficiency at [b]other[/b] times and in [b]other[/b] ways;
for we are far from having any reason to supposed that many species ever
undergo modification and improvement at the same time in the same area."
(emphasis added, Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (By Means of Natural
Selection Or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life),
The Modern Library, 1998, p116-117)[/quote]
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