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The term "evolution" now apparently just refers to the history of life on Earth -- this article sheds no light on the mechanisms by which evolution is supposed
by jononomo 4y ago
The term "evolution" now apparently just refers to the history of life on Earth -- this article sheds no light on the mechanisms by which evolution is supposed to have occurred, which is the thing people find so puzzling. Various species are posited to be "related" to each other, by which they mean something like what we would mean if we discovered that the iPhone 14 is "related" to the iPhone SE more so than it is to a Samsung Galaxy -- meaning that they have similar templates and attributes, not that one is descended from the other. If by the "evolutionary riddle" you mean "how could evolution possibly have occurred" then you will find no answer in this article.
- robga 4y agoDo you find the answer “variation and natural selection” to the question “how could evolution possibly have occurred" unsatisfactory? If so, it’d be interesting to understand why.
- jononomo 4y ago"Natural selection" presumes that there are already options to select from. So nature will "select" a bird that has functioning wings over a bird born with deformed and malfunctioning wings. But where did the wings come from in the first place? That is the real question. That word "variation" does not answer that question and nor do the words "random mutation" because the question is HOW it happened, not WHETHER it happened. "There was a variation that got selected" is obviously true, but what made that variation? How did it happen? Why did it happen? To say "it just happened randomly" is to suggest something even less intelligible than to say "God created it". So far no one has suggested any MECHANISM to shed any light on evolution.