>Natural selection does not explain how life evolved from nothing.
Depends on what you mean by "explain." If you mean taht natural selection
does not prove that life evolved from nothing, then I must point out that
natural selection is best viewed as a theory, and theories are, by
definition, not proven. However, if your comment means that natural
selection does not provide a MODEL for evolution from nothing, then the
statement is not entirely correct. First, the earliest steps of
abiogenesis, or the formation of biomolecules, may not need to follow any
rule of natural selection. This would only come into play with the first
replicating gene that conferred a particular phenotype that could be acted
upon by the environment. Viewing the gene as the unit of selection, then
the subsequent evolution of living forms would conceivably follow the
constraints of natural selection. For a critique of this, see Sterleny and
Kitcher, J of Philosophy, July, 1988 pp339-61.
Note, I do not say that this is known fact. Rather, I simply wish to point
out that the theory of evolution can, in fact, include a model for prebiotic
evolution.
Neither
>does it explain how mutation could explain evolution upward to higher more
>intelligent life.
I don't know why you say this because this is precisely what the
neoDarwinian synthesis explains.
Where in all the universe does one find a plan which
>sets forth how to organize random particles into particular people? Where
>does one see a marvelous motor which converts the continual flow of solar
>radiant energy bathing the earth into the work of building chemical
>elements into replicating cellular systems, or of organizing populations
>of worms into populations of men, over vast spans of geologic time?
This is rather indirect and it is hard to understand what your question is.
>
>> "what else is there besides pure chance and how can these
>> something elses be creative".
Natural selection is there besides chance. Chance means that any event has
a the same probability of success as any other event. Natural selection
says that only certain events can be successful in a given environment.
This is the opposite of chance.
! And where else but God does creation come
>from?
Most of us here would agree wholeheartedly with this point.
Steve