Sunday 22 March 2009

Randomness


One of the objections to evolution that creationists tend to use is that they believe that all the complexity of life could not have come about through purely random means - it's too improbable. They're right that it's hard to believe. It's a good thing, then, that this is not what evolution says.

Evolution is not a purely random process. One of the mechanisms (there are others) that allow for change to occur is random mutation, which is a random process. These mutations are impossible to predict and allow for small differences in off-spring that may or may not provide an advantage in survival and reproduction. This is done through natural selection, which is not a random process. By ignoring the non-random selective process, creationists and anti-evolutionists effectively create a straw man of an argument that does not represent what evolution actually says.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For the most part, Creationists just haven't taken the time to open a science book. Most have the audacity to claim that Evolution is just a "theory". Which, ironically, they are right. If they actualy knew what a scientific theory is, then they would understand that a theory is not the same as a guess.

A scientific theory summarizes a hypothesis or group of hypotheses that have been supported with repeated testing. A theory is valid as long as there is no evidence to dispute it. Therefore, theories can be disproven.

So the creationist should first find evidence that diproves the evolution theory before they can make any claim that Evolution is false. To this day the Creationist hypothesis has not ben awarded the title of a scientific theory.

Creationism doesn't have real science (evidence) to suport it, its just a colection of guesses that are fueled by old superstitions.

- Rafael G

I stumbled on to your blog and I've enjoyed reading it. I posted it on my blog. Keep it up.