LIFE TWO: EVOLUTION
SO WHAT IS EVOLUTION ALL ABOUT? A METAPHYSICAL QUESTION, OR WHAT THIS WEB-SITE IS ALL ABOUT.
HOW DOES EVOLUTION WORK, AND WHY IT ISN'T RANDOM.
AND WHY DOES EVOLUTION MATTER?
Did we evolve, and are we evolving?
What is Evolution? You may have picked up in your education a range of views. You might think that evolution is about progress and change, or it's a random wander through possible forms of living things with each new form coming about via natural selection acting on random mutations. Most Darwinists believe the second option, while most everyone else believes the first - if they believe in evolution at all. As a Darwinist myself I believe the second view, but it may only be part of the story.
Evolution is the change of living things through time. How does it happen? From generation to generation tiny changes in the genetic codes of living things are constantly occurring. The life circumstances of each living thing determines how well that living thing survives and reproduces, and hence how far the changes to its genetic code will spread in the general population. A good change is defined as one which allows an organism to live and reproduce more successfully,and a bad one is one which inhibits the organism's life, but most genetic changes are in fact neutral - no effect.
MUTATIONS:
the raw stuff of CREATION. Mutation, in evolutionary biology, has two levels of meaning ...
DNA:That is changes in the production code of organisms, which can be more than just single changes to a bit in a DNA string. Whole genes can be duplicated, even chromosomes. Genes can change positions and at every formation of a new zygote [fertilised egg] that's exactly what happens in RECOMBINATION.
BODY: The end product of DNA mutations is how the plant or animal then differs from its parents.
CAN RANDOM GENETIC CHANGES BE CREATIVE? FOR AN INTERESTING EXAMPLE HERE'S AN ARGUMENT FROM FRANCISCO AYALA:CREATIVE GENES
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