Originally Posted by CTD
I was talking about the beneficial mutation, but as you have observed, this applies equally well to the imaginary nonlife which some say evolved into life.

Actually, my choice of terms could be better. Under the paradigm, 'Selection' is actually a process of pure subtraction. Nothing is ever 'selected for'.

Does your statement even make sense?
If I am rolling 100 six sided dice of the normal gaming variety and perform the selection that you suggest by removing all the dice that don't land with six facing up, then by default the dice with the six facing up are selected for. They are the dice still on the table. The other dice are eliminated.


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Consider the analogy of a classroom. The only students who are 'selected' are those who fail the grade. Even those who squeak by with a D- pass. Selection only cares about pass or fail. Darwin was deeply concerned about this sort of thing. He insisted that all populations of lifeforms must undergo frequent famines (or similar disasters). In the classroom analogy, this would be like raising the standard, and failing anyone with a C or even a B.
Please quote where Darwin claims that it is an all or nothing scenario. Selection works in percentages. Beneficial mutations allow those members of the population to be more likely to have more offspring than those without that beneficial mutation. Over a number of generations this beneficial mutation will permeate the population because those that have it have more offspring than those that don't.
You are well aware of this point in Darwin's theory yet choose to misrepresent it.

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In more recent times, not much attention at all is paid to the problem of C & D students lowering the overall G.P.A. At least not openly. Eugenics is the 'science' founded to resolve this evolutionary problem (for mankind, at least), and the eugenicists tend to keep fairly quiet these days.

Eugenics is a part of the theory of evolution in the same way that the Spanish inquisition is part of Jesus's teachings....ie, not part of it at all. What someone does with the truth does not change it from being the truth.

A faith that connot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets. -- Arthur C. Clarke