Is there actually such a thing as natural selection? Let us investigate.
I) Natural selection
1) Early definition of Natural Selection
A) Darwin wrote in The origin of Species this definition;
“This preservation of favorable individual differences and variation,
and the destruction of those which are injurious, I have called Natural
Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest,”
B) This is the definition that is most widely held by the layman.
C) As we shall see later, this is not correct.
2) Natural Selection is fundamental to Darwinian evolution
A) Natural Selection, coupled with random mutations, is the one and only
mechanism proposed to account for changes in form fitting a species,
sometimes uniquely, to its mode of life.
B) Examples of
1) The streamlining of the dolphin
2) The length of the giraffe’s neck.
C) The giraffe has a long neck for 3 reasons
1) An ancestral animal experienced a mutation which fortuitously gave
it a longer neck
2) The longer neck gave it some competitive advantage (such as being
able to feed higher up in the trees) so it survived to produce many
offspring
3) This natural advantage also favored its descendants, a majority of
which would inherit the long neck.
4) The second two stages of this process are what Darwin meant by the
phrase.
D) Darwin also saw natural selection taking place in a hostile environment
where the majority of offspring die before reaching maturity of breeding.
E) This view, the core of Darwinian thinking, was summed up by modern
synthetic evolutionists in the phrase “differential reproduction” and is
synonymous with natural selection
3) Where’s the evidence
A) If natural selection or differential reproduction is of such importance to the
theory we should expect to see lots of detailed studies and observations.
B) We can search the scientific libraries in vain for such studies, yet we will
come away empty handed.
C) As we shall see, natural selection cannot be studied in any experimental way.
4) Natural selection is a Tautology
A) Natural selection means those animals and plants that are best fitted to their
environments and way of life are the most successful.
B) How do we measure or evaluate the fitness of an animal or plant?
1) We do so by its capacity to survive.
2) Just how is survival measured? By the number of offspring left.
3) In other words fitness means breeding success.
4) Restated, the survival of the fittest means: the prolific breeding of the
most prolific breeders.
C) In the halls of philosophy, this is called a Tautology.
1) Tautology is defined as; A statement that is true by virtue of its
logical form, rather than by the substance of the statement. As a
result, the statement itself is meaningless.
2) Examples of
a) "Either it will rain tomorrow, or it will not rain."
b) "Be yourself."
c) "It is wrong to do bad things."
3) This is considered a logical fallacy
4) In the issue of natural selection it states that the fittest individuals
in a population (defined by those which leave the most offspring) will
leave the most offspring.
D) When put this way, does the phrase really mean anything at all.
5) Observational problems
A) Survival immediately conjures up a vision of competition between the various
forms of life in a hostile world.
B) They compete for the scarce food supplies and living space.
1) In reality, such competition is very rarely found in nature.
2) It has been estimated that there are at least 22,000 common species of
fish, amphibian, reptiles, mammals, and birds and at least 1 million
species of insect species.
3) Some of these species, in fact, compete, but they are in the minority.
4) The overwhelming majority do not fight, do not kill for food and do
not compete aggressively for space in a way that results in the “loser”
dying out.
C) Examples
1) Male Fiddler Crab
a) It was once believed that the huge claw was used to fight its
fellow males for the privilege of mating with the most desirable
females and also to possess the most desirable territory.
b) Observations of the male fiddler crabs show that they do not use
their large claw in this way. They seem to signal the presence of
food to their fellow crabs.
2) Fighting between males for domination generally leads to no particular
advantage to the winner.
a) Most times the loser just goes elsewhere and mates.
b) Females will mate as readily with the loser as with the winner.
D) The Luckiest survive
1) Instead of the textbook explanation of the better adapted survive, it
seems that it is the luckiest that survive and has nothing to do with
adaptive traits.
a) Most predators do not feed on the prey that they themselves
capture and kill.
b) The majority of carnivores are opportunists in that they are
scavengers or carrion feeders.
c) This includes hunters such as lions and sharks who frequently
eat as a result of others or natural deaths.
d) Instead of the fight for survival that is core to the theory, the
observable facts indicate that most predators survive because
they were lucky enough to find food.
2) Another important assumption made by the theory is that it is within
the power of the individual to take action to ensure its survival.
a) The toughest, cleverest, most determined, and most
enterprising lion will ensure its survival by seeking out new
territory and new sources of food when its prey runs out.
b) This is not usually the case, in many instances the prey has run
short because of some natural disaster. Even if the lion escapes
the natural disaster, there simply may not be alternative sources
of food available to it. No action it takes can affect its survival.
c) By the same token, an unenterprising, cowardly, stupid predator
in another part of the world may escape the natural disaster,
survive and breed.
d) Whether a seed falls on fertile ground or stony ground is a
matter of luck. There is no mutation that can assist the seed
which lands on stony ground.
e) In reality, it is not the fittest that survives, but the luckiest.
E) Redefining Words
1) Faced with the observational evidence, the evolutionists have redefined
their terms (this always happens).
2) What they now say
a) “The struggle for existence merely signifies that a portion of
each generation is bound to die before it can reproduce itself”
Thomas Huxley
b) “If genetically red-haired parents have, on average, a larger
proportion of children then blonds or brunettes, then
evolution will be in the direction of red hair. The
characteristics themselves do not directly matter at all. All
that matters is who leaves more decedents over the
generations. Natural selection favors fitness only if you
define fitness as leaving more decedents. In fact geneticists
do define it that way, which may be confusing to others. To
a geneticist, fitness has nothing to do with health, strength,
good looks or anything but effectiveness in breeding.”
G.G. Simpson
3) The switch is that now fitness and survival are replaced with breeding
4) This sounds solid enough, and it avoids all the pitfalls of the older
definition.
5) Natural selection is the process by which the most successful breeders
populate the world, and the less successful breeders die out-regardless of their respective characteristics.
F) The Dilemma
1) If, as the new definition states, characteristics are irrelevant, why does
the giraffe have a long neck?
2) Here is were we get stuck
3) The only help we get from the theory if evolution is that the giraffe
has survived because it has survived.
4) Natural selection is unable to offer any evidence or insight into its
evolution because “the characteristics themselves do not matter
directly at all.”
5) What this really means is that Darwinists have become reluctant to try
to explain any particular characteristic as being responsible for the
giraffe’s evolution-even regarding its long neck- because they would
then have to show how and why that characteristic has favored the
giraffe over other animals.
6) Natural selection has proved a completely inadequate tool for such
explanation since it does not allow us to refer to individual
characteristics at all.
7) All that Darwinists dare say with impunity is that the giraffe has
survived because it is “adapted” to its environment-the modern
way of expressing an old tautology.
G) Summarization
1) The modern position of the theory of evolution is:
a) The struggle for existence plays no part in evolution
b) The direction of evolution is determined solely by the
characteristics of those animals and plants that are successful
breeders
c) They are unable to say anything about why a particular
characteristic might favor the survival of any particular animal
or plant
2) Thus, natural selection sheds no light on the mechanism of evolution
and is only another way of saying that some animals survive while
others die.
H) Natural selection can fit contradictory outcomes
1) Natural selection is so elastic that it can be made to fit a whole range
of contradictory outcomes.
2) Examples
a) Natural selection is entirely compatible with the notion that all
organisms in stable environments have reached a fitness peak
on which they will remain forever. At the same time natural
selection is entirely compatible with the idea that all organisms
should regress to the safest common denominator, a single-
celled organism, and thus become optimally adapted to every
habitat.
b) Natural selection claims that camouflage coloring and mimicry
is adaptive and will be selected for, yet it also claims that
warning coloration is adaptive and will be selected for.
3) As a theory, natural selection makes no unique predictions but
instead is used retrospectively to explain every outcome. A theory
that explains everything in this way, explains nothing. Natural
selection is not a mechanism: it is a rationalization after the fact.
No comments:
Post a Comment