What evidence is there for evolution being non-random?

I already gave you one example regarding abiogenesis. Here is another: http://www.iscid.org/pcid/2002/1/4/mullan_primitive_cell.php
What I'm looking for is a probability analysis regarding the likelihood of life evolving in the manner it has.

I can tell you right now that the probability of life evolving in the manner it has is going to be very small.

Now make the mistaken conclusion that means evolution is wrong. Go on now. Do it. That's what you're looking for.

(Ignoring the point, of course, that life evolving in another manner is still ife evolving even if you and I wouldn't be around to give a crap).

"Since taking hold on Earth more than 3.8 billion years ago, life has never let go. Evolutionary transformations along the way -- changes in the forms and functions of living things -- have produced tremendous diversity.

That's like a summation - are you like implying that one day someone came along and said this and then people go: "ooohhh, I will join the cult of evolution now?" And it doesn't argue what you said it did anyway.

"Explore life's greatest hits. You'll learn that most of evolution has taken place underwater. You'll trace some remarkable journeys, like how life moved out of water and on to land. And you'll discover that some of evolution's most successful creatures just happened to be in the right place at the right time." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/low_bandwidth.html
[/quote]

Same again.
 
Rodney,

Although our knowledge of the mechanics of evolution is still in its infancy, and I have said that we don't have really detailed models, progress is being made.

Michael Behe used the example of the bacterial flagellum as an example of an "irreducibly complex" system when he wrote "Darwin's Black Box". Since then, there has been an awful lot of study of bacterial flagella, and their origin, and similarity to type III secretory systems. That area provides the most detail that I, personally, have ever seen in terms of modelling evolution.


If you read this article:

http://www.talkdesign.org/faqs/flagellum.html

you won't find vague descriptions.
 
Last edited:
To be fair, the "models" that exist are vague descriptions. What ID advocates are demanding is either a laboratory demonstration, or a detailed, step by step account, or simulation, that could take us from atoms to life (for abiogenesis), or from one species to another (for evolution).

On some level, it's a reasonable demand. I find it hard to criticize people who insist that until such detailed models exist that evolution has not been proven.
I see what you mean, but it is evident to everybody that constructing a model showing every mutation involved since the first cell to humans is a huge task that is not likely to happen soon. Demanding the impossible is just obstruction, and creationists would not ask for the same level of evidence in other areas.
 
I can tell you right now that the probability of life evolving in the manner it has is going to be very small.

Now make the mistaken conclusion that means evolution is wrong. Go on now. Do it. That's what you're looking for.

(Ignoring the point, of course, that life evolving in another manner is still ife evolving even if you and I wouldn't be around to give a crap).



That's like a summation - are you like implying that one day someone came along and said this and then people go: "ooohhh, I will join the cult of evolution now?" And it doesn't argue what you said it did anyway.

Same again.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it's all so everlastingly amazing that things just happen to end up in the right place at the right time. It couldn't possibly be because the environment is selecting for the best replicators in it and multiplying their genome exponentially... nah... it's just random luck. Go figure. God musta done it.
 
I see what you mean, but it is evident to everybody that constructing a model showing every mutation involved since the first cell to humans is a huge task that is not likely to happen soon. Demanding the impossible is just obstruction, and creationists would not ask for the same level of evidence in other areas.

No sir, they wouldn't. Just one primitive text is all the proof they need.

Heck, we've mapped genomes... proven the chromosome 2 fusion with apes and us... that's pretty damn compelling... even made their hero, Behe, concede that humans and apes share common ancestry... but there never will be enough evidence to change the mind of a creationist... faith doesn't respond to reason.

They will never concede a single thing. They just pretend there are no answers even if you give them exactly what they ask for.
 
I see what you mean, but it is evident to everybody that constructing a model showing every mutation involved since the first cell to humans is a huge task that is not likely to happen soon. Demanding the impossible is just obstruction, and creationists would not ask for the same level of evidence in other areas.
True.
 
At least we can agree here. So why do creationists always throw abiogenesis in as an argument against evolution, when it really has nothing to do with evolution?
Because creationists believe that life did not originate randomly and that, to the extent evolution has occurred, it has not been a random process either.

As far as I know, such models has existed practically since Darwin. In the very first book that I read about evolution, there was an outline of how life had evolved from single-celled creatures to humans.
Yes, but that's based on a small amount of fossils and a large amount of speculation, rather than a probability analysis. What I'm interested in seeing is, for example, a probability analysis of the Cambrian explosion. It's not enough to speculate without such an analysis that random mutations, natural selection, and environmental factors must have been responsible for the profound diversification of life that occurred at that time because that diversification could also have been attributable to: (a) a special creation; (b) a guided evolutionary process; or (c) aliens.

No, I was not referring to diploidy. I know you are familiar with talkorigins.org, so I will direct you to this article: Observed Instances of Speciation
I disagree that is speciation in the Darwinian sense. See http://www.alternativescience.com/talk.origins-speciations.htm
 
I do not consider evolution to be random at all. It is quiet ordered and entails a lot of design. This is not saying some God is looking down upon evolution and guiding it at every stage.

The underlying laws that dictate how evolution works and dictate that evolution will follow certain ordered and designed paths. Perhaps there is not actual intelligence behind the laws, but the results of the laws do follow designed and ordered paths.

One should not mistake the use of randomness and chaos in a system to mean that system is not also ordered by design.

So far, the designed order that evolution has been capable of is still far greater than anything we are capable of doing through our technology. That is rapidly changing, but it still holds today.
 
Oh no, I understand what you are saying quite well. Algorithms like Google return "random results" per your definition of random. People are random because they are made of atoms and the electron spin is random... the results of pregnancy tests are random and poker is as random as roulette... I understand just fine... which is why I'm telling you that nobody with any credibility calls evolution a random process. Your definition doesn't distinguish between the butterfly and the 747 in the junkyard-- but you know that-- which is why you cling to your claim that there is no evidence that evolution is non-random.

I think you've worn out everybody else with your spin... you'll have to start recruiting some creationists if you want someone to pretend you are saying something useful or meaningful or if you want someone to think you understand natural selection.

You are free to insult me all you want, but you are the one using a definition that is not defined as you are using it in any peer reviewed journal. Nor are any of them saying "natural selection is random" nor are they saying evolution is random...nor are they saying that stochastic = random.

Maybe Whiteyonthemoon will help you see how vague you are or scrounge up some people who think you are super duper at modeling evolution. You can write up your thesis about how Dawkins et. al. are wrong and submit it for peer review and say "I told you so" to me when they publish it.

If you were my student, you'd get a D on conveyance of the process. But I'm sure Behe would give you a B+. I just want you to know I agree with you completely. Per your definition of random, evolution is random. And so is just about everything else.

articulett-

It is very clear from your posts that you are the on who is trying to obfuscate by using the word "random". None of the things that you listed above are actually random by the definition I am using. The results of a Google search are completely determined by whether the result page or page linked to the result page contains the search parameters. If a page does not contain any of the search parameters and none of the pages linked to that page contain any of the search parameters, that page will not appear in the results list. In order for a Google search to be random by the definition I am using, it would have to exclude page that contained all the the search parameters and include pages that that contained none of the search parameters, making that whole point of having a search engine rather moot given the amount of extraneous information it would provide.

Furthermore, as has been explained to you and cyborg many times, elementary algebra is not random by the definition I am using. It is true that you a can generate an algebraic equation by randomly picking coefficients, constants, and variables, but that doesn't make the functions and variable themselves random in the sense that the random variables of probability theory and statistics are random. The set of real-number solutions for any given equation or system of equations may be uncountably infinite but there are only certain ordered n-tuples that satisfy the equation or system of equations (e.g., the equation 3x+2y+z=10 has an uncountably infinite set of real-number solutions, but (3,2,3) was always, is, and always will be a solution whereas (0,0,0) was never, isn't, and never will be a solution). Therefore, the solutions to an algebraic equation are completely determined by the coefficients and constants in the equation. On a more technical note, thought, the functions and variables of elementary algebra are not random in the mathematical sense from probability theory because they are defined by a Lebesgue measure on the extend reals where the random variables and probability distribution are random in the sense from probability theory because they are defined by a probability measure on the closed interval [0,1] (which is the only interval on which the probability measure is defined. In short, elementary algebra is not random in the sense that I have been using random and you are deliberately misrepresenting my position and obfuscating when you say that my definition makes elementary algebra random.
 
Thanks Oppressed for pointing out my reason, why one should call it random...
 
Because creationists believe that life did not originate randomly and that, to the extent evolution has occurred, it has not been a random process either.
Why should those be reasons for tasking evolution with something that has nothing to do with evolution? Isn't the real reason rather that it seems easier to attack evolution for abiogenesis than for evolution?

Yes, but that's based on a small amount of fossils and a large amount of speculation, rather than a probability analysis. What I'm interested in seeing is, for example, a probability analysis of the Cambrian explosion. It's not enough to speculate without such an analysis that random mutations, natural selection, and environmental factors must have been responsible for the profound diversification of life that occurred at that time because that diversification could also have been attributable to: (a) a special creation; (b) a guided evolutionary process; or (c) aliens.
But we know that evolution works. Even most creationists agree that evolution works in our daily lives and causes fish to become smaller and diseases to beomce resistant. And we have tons of fossils, geological evidence and much else to support evolution, whereas we have nothing at all to support the idea of anything ever having been created by anybody, and there is no evidence for either gods or aliens. Whether evolution is guided or not would rather depend on the existence of somebody to guide it, and it is pretty much soemthing that can never be proved nor disproved.

I disagree that is speciation in the Darwinian sense. See http://www.alternativescience.com/talk.origins-speciations.htm
Thank you for providing the link. I will try to investigate it.
 
Rodney, there is no such thing as "alternative science"-- facts are the same for everybody. The earth was still a sphere even though humans for eons believed that it was flat. Your site is absolutely incorrect that no beneficial mutations have been observe. It actually happens all the time, including the butterfly link I provided earlier. And look what can happen if you if you mutate the myostatin gene causing mysostatin deficiency:
http://www.who-sucks.com/people/mon...a-collection-of-myostatin-deficiency-pictures

(and I think creationists want to pretend scientists don't know things so they can keep themselves ignorant and prop up whatever creation story they've been indoctrinated with.) The more beneficial the mutation, the more widely it is spread and the more highly conserved it is throughout evolution. Each benefit only has to happen once. The benefit can then multiply exponentially.
See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19733274
 

Attachments

  • RichardSandrak_sm.jpg
    RichardSandrak_sm.jpg
    9.5 KB · Views: 1
Rodney, there is no such thing as "alternative science"-- facts are the same for everybody. The earth was still a sphere even though humans for eons believed that it was flat.
Here we agree.

Your site is absolutely incorrect that no beneficial mutations have been observe. It actually happens all the time, including the butterfly link I provided earlier. And look what can happen if you if you mutate the myostatin gene causing mysostatin deficiency:
http://www.who-sucks.com/people/mon...a-collection-of-myostatin-deficiency-pictures

(and I think creationists want to pretend scientists don't know things so they can keep themselves ignorant and prop up whatever creation story they've been indoctrinated with.) The more beneficial the mutation, the more widely it is spread and the more highly conserved it is throughout evolution. Each benefit only has to happen once. The benefit can then multiply exponentially.
See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19733274
What do your links have to do with "Observed instances of speciation"? Is Boxhorn right or is Milton? If you say Boxhorn, please explain specifically how speciation in the Darwinian sense has been demonstrated.
 
Rodney,
there are tons of observed speciations...it's just that creationists like to change the definitions as they go. For creatures with larger geneomes, it takes many generations of genome tweaking to get an animal that can no longer produce viable offspring with it's ancestor-- donkeys and zebra share a common ancestor... but they have evolved separately for so long that their offspring tend to be sterile. But they do exist.

I'm sure you've been sent to and ignored talk origins regarding speciation. It's just the oldest creationist ploy... you can't see it, so it must not be true. do you know we've never actually taken a tape measure around the edge of the earth or dug a hole all the way through to confirm that it's a sphere? But it was a sphere, even when humans presumed that would make the water spill out.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.html
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/speciation.html

And yet you take an old book written about events that occurred long before the life of the author-- nothing is first hand... it's all based on revelation and very old memories and interpretation in a time where such people didn't know about schizophrenia, epilepsy, false memories, and the many ways people fool themselves... You take this many transcribed, barbaric, crazy text and call it true. While you ignore the overwhelming and ever growing facts that anybody can grasp if they don't think they are doing something "good" by believing a silly old primitive tale that is indistinguishable from the thousands of similar tales people have been making up for years.

If by some wild stretch of the imagination you were indoctrinated with the wrong story the way Muslims were... how would you expect to know? What do you expect would be different if evolution WAS the fact that scientists are telling you it is? Or do you think by pretending they don't know while you do makes your version more likely to be true? Truer than the Amish? The Jehovah Witnesses? Mormons? Moonies? Muslims? Scientologists? Because you haven't got any more evidence for your theory than they have. And the actual truth is true for everybody even if they don't accept it.

Gravity, atoms, math, germ theory, and evolution-- they are all true and the same truth for everybody. It's just too damn bad that your omniscient invisible friend didn't give anyone a heads up. You can learn the facts that humans are privileged to know for the first time... or you can pretend you already know the answers and confuse yourself and others so they don't understand actual useful information. There is no science alternative-- science is about evidence... alternatives are not... they are about using areas of incomplete knowledge as a means of obfuscating and inserting magic.
 
Last edited:
I don't get how anyone who realizes that from a single egg and sperm a full grown Human can result and then state that Evolution does not have design and order to it. Inside that egg and sperm are detailed designs on how to grow a Human being.

Many ordered system which perform some function along a set design exist in nature. These systems incorporate randomness and chaos within their design, but they are still and ordered system by design.

But design does not necessarily mean by intelligent design. It does not mean that some cognizant being planned the design.

There are things that work by an inherit natural design and that is the underlying principle of Evolution. If not for the underlying inherit natural design in Evolution, life would not have developed and Humans would never have evolved.
 
I don't get how anyone who realizes that from a single egg and sperm a full grown Human can result and then state that Evolution does not have design and order to it. Inside that egg and sperm are detailed designs on how to grow a Human being.

Many ordered system which perform some function along a set design exist in nature. These systems incorporate randomness and chaos within their design, but they are still and ordered system by design.

But design does not necessarily mean by intelligent design. It does not mean that some cognizant being planned the design.

There are things that work by an inherit natural design and that is the underlying principle of Evolution. If not for the underlying inherit natural design in Evolution, life would not have developed and Humans would never have evolved.

I agree. I think that those who call it random are either intelligent design proponents trying to obfuscate understanding or people who think they understand natural selection but they don't. I think Mijo is trying to claim it's random at every turn so that it can be seen as "random" like a tornado in a junkyard building a 747-- this seems so improbable, that a designer seems likely. Mijo won't admit that is his intent (to obfuscate understanding and declare evolution really is random)-- though all credible scientists say changes on the genome level (mutation, etc.) are random, while natural selection is determined (not randomly) by the best reproducers created by the genomes.

But Mijo, while claiming not to be an intelligent design proponent insists on describing evolution in the same way creationists like Rodney mischaracterize it. And nothing you can do or say can get a creationist to conclude that he might be misleading, uninformative, mistaken, or wrong. He calls the experts unclear and insists that somehow he is saying something useful despite all evidence to the contrary and multiple attempts to show him what scientists actually think.
 
I think my creationist thoughts and questions would be along the line of could our fundamental existence, the true underlying rules of how we exist, have been created by something intelligent?

I think it is overwhelmingly clear that no evidence of some grand intelligent being or race of beings is overseeing our existence. So either no such higher level beings exist or they don’t want us to know they exist.

I have done a lot of study upon the laws and rules about how our existence works as we have learned them so far. They are extremely complex and downright beautify to me. Nature is truly amazing.

These laws dictate that intelligent life similar to us will develop and eventually master their environment down to at least the molecular level, at which point they will be able to change their physical form significantly, thus making what is truly important is their minds.

While we have yet to detect any other intelligent life similar or more advanced than ours, I have absolutely no doubt it has and is developing elsewhere in our known universe. It is only a matter of how frequently.

Given the astounding complexity of nature’s laws and that these laws dictate we will develop, could these laws have just come about on their own?

Well, could be. Everything has to have a beginning somewhere.

But is it also possible something created the laws of our existence? Maybe. How can we know for sure?

If something created us, it certainly isn’t the Biblical God, because the idea of the Biblical God is too full of logical fallacies.
 
aticulett-

You seem to miss that fact that I have cite many peer reviewed publications that model evolution by natural selection as a stochastic process, which by its rigorous mathematical definition is random. You also seem all to eager to ignore the the fact that these stochastic processes do exhibit order because of convergence of random variables.

You can stop misrepresenting me as an "intelligent design proponent" any time you feel like you want to be intellectually honest and have a discussion about randomness and evolution.
 

Back
Top Bottom