>What is being questioned by the atheists is not evolution, per se, but the
>classical "time + random chance" formulation. Because of a lot of the
>problems that I am pestering Glenn with (and are acknowledged in the
>literature), there simply doesn't appear to be enough time and/or favorable
>conditions for evolution to occur by random chance.
Creationists have claimed that evolutionists teach "time + random chance,"
but I'm not sure the creationists and the evolutionists agree on the role
of random chance. I think most evolutioists would agree that random
processes generate variation in the gene pool, But they are quick to point
out that envirinmental factors then select from those random variations the
variations that have survival value. Dan Ashlock, one of the evolutionist
regulars on t.o. once said something like, "evolution isn't random at all.
The unfit individuals get killed."
While I'm really reluctant to assert that a process outside my area of
expertise _must_ have occurred in a particular way, I can certainly accept
the possibility that God can carry out his oversight of the development of
nature by carefully controlling the dynamics of the gene distributions and
the selective pressures exerted by the environment. Such governance would
be every bit as effective as physical manipulation, but would not likely be
detectible by means available to humans.
Stu Kauffman's book, "The origins of order" has some interesting insights
about the role of strange attractors in evolution. It's not easy reading,
but I believe it's worth the effort.
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