A few months ago I read an interesting comment in the ASA's _Perspectives
on Science and Christian Faith_. It was about natural selection. I know
that natural selection has been discussed quite a bit on the reflector. So
I might well have missed the answer to the question I shall ask. First, the
comment by Robert Augros in "Is Nature Purposeful?" _Perspectives_ ,
December 1996, p. 217:
"Another central mechanism in Darwin's explanation is undermined by modern
ecological studies. Ecologists Simberloff, Kormondy, Messenger, Ricklefs,
and Colinvaux, basing their conclusions on hundreds of field studies,
declare that in nature competition between species is rare to nonexistent.
[Niles] Eldredge points to the many 'ecologists skeptical of the very
concept of the competition between species...who claim they simply cannot
see any evidence for such raw battling going on nowadays in nature.' But if
universal competition between species and between individuals is not
factual, then Darwin's argument for natural selection fails. Ecological
studies have also documented that species regulate their population size
without recourse to disaster, predation, and disease as Darwin postulated."
Kormondy reference: E.J. Kormondy, _Concepts of Ecology_ (Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976), 143.
Eldredge reference: Niles Eldredge, _Time Frames: The Rethinking of
Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria_ (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1985), 82.
My question: Does this claim by Augros, Eldridge, and the others cited hold
up? Is there little if any evidence for natural competition between
species?
Please notice that I am not asking if the various species have a common
ancestor, that is, if evolution is true. The only question I am asking is
whether there is evidence for natural selection, where by "evidence" I mean
the kind of information that ecologists obtain.
And, of course, I am not asking about anybody's motives.
Again, I apologize if this matter has already been covered on the
reflector.
Russ
Russell Maatman
e-mail: rmaat@mtcnet.net
Home: 401 5th Avenue
Sioux Center, IA 51250