Darwinism/Talk

The definition of Darwinism is:

all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

This definition (a) does not say where the variations come from but (b) implies that natural selection *causes* the variations.

I thought that natural selection just determines which variations persist.

So a better definition would be:

all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. How these variations come into being is anyone's guess.

--Ed Poor

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Please tell me, someone, if the following idea is merely a quibble or is actually significant.

Evolution occurs through (a) an unknown cause making new species and (b) the weeding out process (natural selection).

My question is the identity of the unknown cause. Is it background radiation, such as cosmic rays, causing random mutation? Could it be God?

Is it any more scientific to say it's not God than that it is God?

Maybe God put gravity on automatic, so to speak. If God exists and God created gravity, He might not be performing a miracle everytime something heavy falls to the ground.

But maybe God created each species of life miraculously. It apparently took millions of years, and He might not have found it boring to tweak His design from time to time and see what came of it.

I think natural selection is an excellent hypothesis and entitled to be called a scientific theory. I'm not sure it's a law like F=MA quite yet.

That's called Deism or Theism depending on whether or not you think he interfered after creation.

I suppose the scientific answer to that is "Well, I suppose it could be that way, but so what if it is?" If God's actions are indistinguishable from God's inaction (or non-existence), then what's the point of making a distinction? See Philip Henry Gosse. -- Paul Drye