Post by Karl Aksel on Nov 8, 2019 10:49:01 GMT
"I wonder, are you aware that no-one credible actually says that evolution is a process achieved through a series of accidents?"
Which prompted you to accuse him of being a Lamarckian. Which would only make sense if you thought Darwinian evolution was random.
No it's not - it's about evolution. I read your OP.
Sure, any improvement is readily lost even today. But any improvement has a much higher chance of being passed on than a disadvantage. At least in the animal kingdom - less so but in an environment before life, there is no threat from other life forms. And since the environment in which life first formed was bound to be pretty homogenous, there wouldn't have been that many threats.
Maybe so, but you addressed a post talking about evolution. I, in turn, addressed your reply. So not abiogenesis, but evolution. Even if you insist you were talking about abiogenesis: Why did you accuse him of being a Lamarckian? Lamarckian evolution does not postulate anything as to the origins of life.
Although you seem to be dodging what you believe the source of genetic variation is,
Dodging? I practically spoonfed it to you!
the word "random" is still the most service in briefly describing it.
That's what I said.
Despite your protests it is an essential element of evolutionary theory.
I said that, too.
"Natural selection" might appear the more likely to achieve results but both natural selection and some source of genetic variation (apparently random) are essential.
What do you mean, "more likely"? More likely than what? Mutations alone? Kind of like saying the wheels on your car can bring you to your destination more quickly than the intersections can. Mutations alone is not evolution. Evolution is the cause and effect that follows as a matter of nature. Evolution is not random, no matter how random the mutations are. Just like medical treatment is not random, but tailored to individual cases - which are random.
Perhaps ironically it is that same "natural selection" at a prebiotic level that ensures advances are not made toward living things.
There are no selection pressures prior to self-replicating life.