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@Mopac
Haughty.And you can't because you are faithless and refuse to accept instruction.
Haughty.And you can't because you are faithless and refuse to accept instruction.
And "indistinguishable from randomness" would necessitate an ontological statement beyond epistemological limits. Have you observed randomness to an extent where you can relate it?
It is intended to imply that intelliegence and teleology play no role in determining the what and when of mutations - they happen 'randomly'.
Well stated.The validity of the kalam argument is debatable, but it is also moot because even if it is valid it doesn't prove anything about the god of any religion, let alone of a particualar religion.
And Man created a God in his own image.For Man needed answers when there were none.But the answers now come thick and fast.And a New God riseth from the minds of clever Men.
In the context of evolution 'random' means that mutations occur with no regard to the consequences. It doesn't mean all mutations are equally likely - they certainly aren't mathematically random! It means that whether a mutation happens or not is a 'chance event' unrelated to the benefit or damage it will cause.I'm not bothered if 'that isn't what random means'! It is what what 'random' means in this context. It is intended to imply that intelliegence and teleology play no role in determining the what and when of mutations - they happen 'randomly'.
Models that incorporate randomness can closely match reality. I would not call that insignificant.
If you are as versed in evolutionary theory as you claim you ought to know this. For natural selection to be random it would have to select genetic variants purely by chance. But the theory says the opposite. Genetic variants are selected based on proclivity to produce viable offspring, not on chance.
And, in fact, evolution is a phenomenon, and is as inevitable as water flowing downhill. The first thing to realize is that it is not survival that matters in evolution. Rather, it is offspring production. Sure, organisms must survive to produce offspring. But they could survive forever and if they produce no offspring they are an evolutionary dead-end.Once you realize that evolution is about offspring production, it becomes a simple math exercise. If you produce more than an average number of viable offspring for your species, then the gene variants you carry increase in frequency in the population. If you produce fewer than average viable offspring, then the gene variants you carry decrease in frequency. That is, in fact, the very definition of evolution: a change in allele frequency in a population over time.
Discussing how science in general works is hardly irrelevant when discussing a particular branch of science.
Your assertion that we have no observable data about the past is just flat out wrong. The past has left evidence all over the Earth, in fossils, geologic formations, and radioisotopes, just to name a few. We can figure out a vast amount about the past based on evidence it left behind.
Yes, it does. I've given four lines of evidence that support natural selection over orthogenesis,
none of which you even attempted to address,
merely dismissing them as mere "semantics". Sorry, but calling something "semantics" is not a refutation.
"The field of population genetics came into being in the 1920s and 1930s..." (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/population-genetics/)Population genetics signaled the final death-knell for orthogenesis. Up to the 1930's, the biggest weakness for natural selection was the lack of a mechanism for inheritance. It was only once population geneticists demonstrated mathematically that the variety in evolution could be accounted for with Mendelian inheritance that natural selection became the overwhelming consensus.
Would you be more comfortable
with "no detectable or decipherable order or pattern"?
Have you read the title and OP of this thread?
Never mind.
with "no detectable or decipherable order or pattern"?That is logically fallacious.
The validity of the kalam argument is debatable, but it is also moot because even if it is valid it doesn't prove anything about the god of any religion, let alone of a particualar religion.Well stated.
If evolution was mathematically demonstrable, then it would be by all scientific standards and definitions, a scientific law.
Yet to be discovered evidence of an order or pattern is not proof of the contrary. That would be an argument from ignorance (argumentum ad ignorantium.)Please explain.
The standard is efficacy.
Do you have a more elegant or more precise explanation for variations in plants and animals?
Evolution only has to be "better" than nothing (or "the bible").
Perfection is not the goal of science.
This afterthought defeats the point once you still decide to submit your comment.
I'm retracting and claim of "randomness" and REPLACING it with a claim of "no detectable or decipherable order or pattern".Yet to be discovered evidence of an order or pattern is not proof of the contrary. That would be an argument from ignorance (argumentum ad ignorantium.)
The standard is efficacy.Efficacious toward what?
Do you have a more elegant or more precise explanation for variations in plants and animals?No. It's all trivial in my opinion. Then again, I never sought to explain it.
Evolution only has to be "better" than nothing (or "the bible").It's fine if you like the theory of evolution better than "nothing" (or The Bible.) That however does not mean it's more rational.
Perfection is not the goal of science.Non sequitur.
I'm retracting and claim of "randomness" and REPLACING it with a claim of "no detectable or decipherable order or pattern"."No detectable or decipherable order or pattern" would seem to be an epistemologically defensible claim.
A stated goal.
So is your "argument" that because you don't find the theory of evolution personally useful, that it is not useful to anyone?
If "it's all trivial" in your opinion, then why do you even bother engaging?
Please point out specific logical errors
and or provide counter-factuals to the theory of evolution.
Both "nothingness" and "the bible" have ZERO predictive or explanatory power.
You attempted to critique "the theory of evolution" by suggesting that if it was reliable enough, they'd make it a "law".
The "theory of evolution" does not pretend to "explain everything perfectly". Perfection is not the goal of science.
The "theory of evolution" only has to be "better" than any competing theories.
All science is provisional.
I'm retracting and claim of "randomness" and REPLACING it with a claim of "no detectable or decipherable order or pattern"."No detectable or decipherable order or pattern" would seem to be an epistemologically defensible claim.It's not epistemologically defensible because you're still asserting the negative using the lack of evidence toward the affirmation.
That's the reason I specifically worded it as "yet to be discovered."
Consider the possibility that the tools used have yet to become sophisticated enough to render a conclusion on either.