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variety in evolution?

Man of Faith

Well-Known Member
It was because God created life with a built in mechanism for taking advantages of niches through a mediated design.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
anybody got any ideas about why evolution might have created so much variety of life ?

The previous answers are all correct - even Man of Faith's, if you are willing to assume that God created life.

Biological Evolution's whole point is to take advantage of existing niches, after all.
 

Orbital

Member
Will that mean that biological evolution is not mere chance?

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To put it into perspective:

You have a twenty six-sided dice, only the numbers 2,5 and 6 go on. You roll them and half of them land on 2,5 or 6. They 'took advantage' of the ability to go on with these numbers.

Equate this to genetic mutations and you will see what Luis probably ment.
 

atanu

Member
Premium Member
To put it into perspective:

You have a twenty six-sided dice, only the numbers 2,5 and 6 go on. You roll them and half of them land on 2,5 or 6. They 'took advantage' of the ability to go on with these numbers.

Equate this to genetic mutations and you will see what Luis probably ment.

That just seems to put the question one step backwards. Just as casino owners may set up the game for one to lose or win.

...
 

crocusj

Active Member
anybody got any ideas about why evolution might have created so much variety of life ?

Evolution has no goal and is not creative as such. It is merely the process by which life is best able to fill the available niches, different animals often fill the same niches particularly due to isolation. It is also worth noting that the majority of the Earths biomass is microbiotic organisms and not animal.
 

atanu

Member
Premium Member
Evolution is not mere chance, otherwise I would not be loosing my hair!

:D Same here. Thanks

You also said:

Evolution has no goal and is not creative as such. It is merely the process by which life is best able to fill the available niches ---

I believe in Evolution and its evidences. But I have a doubt here. As humans, do we not adapt or seek niches by using our own intellect? Can we say that this does not happen in case of very lowest organisms also?

If we accept it for humans and deny it for other lower forms then the whole concept of evolution stnads questioned since so-called higher forms (complex forms) evolve from the simpler forms.

Moreover, it is beyond doubt that beginning from Proterozoic ages plant and animal forms have evolved towards more complexity to adapt and to avail of greater freedoms.

So, is it correct to discount the effect of inherent intelligence of life forms in the evolution process?

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Orbital

Member
That just seems to put the question one step backwards. Just as casino owners may set up the game for one to lose or win.

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As we find naturalistic explanations for the phenomenons around us this 'casino owner' (or god) has to move one step back.

We have a quite good grasp on how environmental and climate changes come into place, so there is your 'casino owner'. But again, you could now just continue making the same fallacious statement that seems to go into regression.
 

atanu

Member
Premium Member
As we find naturalistic explanations for the phenomenons around us this 'casino owner' (or god) has to move one step back.

Hi Orbital

Yes, it leads to regression. Probably you are assuming that I ascribe to a creator and his creation as the ultimate reality.

Kindly see the post in response to crocusj.

...
 

Orbital

Member
Hi Orbital

Yes, it leads to regression. Probably you are assuming that I ascribe to a creator and his creation as the ultimate reality.]

I did not assume that. I was just stating why it is 'putting the question one step backwards' and why this would be unreasonable.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Atanu, evolution is indeed not mere chance. Nor is it designed by a conscious will.

The third option, the one that does in fact happen in reality, is that evolution is guided by the environment. It favors giraffes with long necks because the environment offers feeding opportunities for those giraffes. It favors male birds with flamboyant plummages because the environment makes those birds more likely to mate.

The environment is not random, so neither will evolution be random.
 
Evolution has no goal and is not creative as such. It is merely the process by which life is best able to fill the available niches, different animals often fill the same niches particularly due to isolation. It is also worth noting that the majority of the Earths biomass is microbiotic organisms and not animal.

if evolution has no goal, then why do things try to survive, why is there a need for the survival of the fittest?

if filling niches is a process, then what intellegent thought, or whatever, put that process in motion?

"earths biomass is microbiotic organisms".......is your point that anything living is made up of microbiotic organisms?
 
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