Re: Fw: The Mere Creation Discussion

Steve Clark (ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Mon, 13 Jan 1997 12:10:56 -0600

>Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 14:16:25 -0600
>To: hamilton@predator.cs.gmr.com (Bill Hamilton)
>From: Steve Clark <ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu>
>Subject: Re: Fw: The Mere Creation Discussion
>
>>Brian D. Harper wrote:
>>>>BH>Darwinism involves random mutations + natural selection. Natural
>>>>>selection is about as opposite from pure chance as one could get.
>>>>
>>>Stephen Jones wrote
>>
>>>>Agreed. But it is the *combination* of "random mutations" with
>>>>"natural selection" that makes the *whole* process essentially
>>>>random:
>
>Wrong!
>
>The randomness of mutations does not make the outcome of the process, which
includes natural selection, random. Rather, natural selection makes the
outcome of the process, which includes random mutation, nonrandom.
>
>A lottery machine which mixes balls with different numbers, and randomly
pops a few out of an orifice represents a process and outcome that are both
essentially random. However, iIf someone stands over it and only selects
balls that have certain numbers, he would be arrested because he is making
the outcome unfair and NOT random, even though the numbers that the machine
generated were random.
>
>Similarly, according to the concept of evolution, mutations may be random,
but if only certain ones are selected, then evolution CANNOT be considered
to be random. A simple definition of random is a situation in which every
event has an equal probability. Since, by definition, natural selection
only permits certain mutations to survive (i.e., to have a higher
probability of survival than other mutations), the process is the antithesis
of random.
>
>Steve
>
>
____________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D . Phone: 608/263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: 608/263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and Email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
CSC K4-432
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792
____________________________________________________________