Re: [asa] Neo-Darwinism and God's action

Thank you all for a lot of helpful comments.
Let me wrap up and summarize this thread.

1. Is the biological theory of evolution truly random? While there are elements of randomness, boundary conditions and environmental factors provide a great deal of direction. Simon Conway Morris has shown a lot of evidence of convergence though the underlying factors for it are not yet known.

2. Does the randomness of evolution mean that it is undirected? Yes--from a natural viewpoint. This means we know of no physical mechanisms that influence genetic variation on the basis of the needs or characteristics of any subsequent organism. No--from a divine viewpoint. This means that God's purposes in guiding evolution need not involve a scientifically detectable influence on genetic variation.

Randy

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Received on Sun Feb 17 21:06:58 2008