Simple to Complex - Reproduction

Mike,Surely you have been around this board long enough to have picked up some information about the theory of evolution, haven't you? Right. Random mutation alone can't do that. But random mutation combined with natural selection most certainly can. Yes. Chance is part of the story. But it is not the whole story. Chance plays a role in the form of the randomness of mutations. But natural selection accounts for the gradual build-up of design.There are no "exact mutations needed". Only if we could run evolution again, and only if we expected the exact same life forms we have now to form again, would certain "exact mutations" be "needed". But even if this scenario were possible - which it isn't - then one rogue comet would blow the whole plan to smithereens. The sequence of mutations that led to our existence was neither "exact" nor "needed". Why? Simply because we were never planned. We just happened. If other mutations had happened - the number of possible sequences is astronomical - some other intelligent life form might be dicussing these issues, or perhaps the earth would just be covered in slime, still.These things have been explained time and again, yet creationists keep ignoring them. Why is that? Have creationists developed teflon brains?

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We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins

It is not enough to simply "strongly disagree", you must put forward your reasons for doing so. (Maybe you tried, but your post was a bit garbled at this point.) I apologize if you felt personally attacked. I didn't mean to. I was simply addressing the fact that you have had ample opportunity to know that random mutations are only half the story. The fact that you churn out the same old argument yet again, suggested to me that you hadn't picked up that information. A cold fact, no personal attack.If, on the other hand, you do know it and deliberately distort the picture, then a personal attack is quite in order, I think. I'm afraid it doesn't show. Nobody expects you to believe it. But you are expected to debate in an honest manner.Many of the arguments creationists put forward are examples of the same phenomenon: they either cannot or deliberately will not understand the principles of evolution explained to them. Creationists routinely distort the picture when they repeat what evolutionists have told them, they misquote things evolutionists have said, they leave out important parts. If countering those tactics means veering off-topic, then a lot of discussions with creationists must go that way, because then the principles of evolution aren't their topic after all.{edited to change a 'that' to a 'the'}This message has been edited by Parasomnium, 12-17-2004 03:10 PM

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We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins