I'm currently reading "Evolution and Analysis by Freemon and Herron" and I came upon a statement which peaked my interest.
quote:
" ... although evolution has tended to increase the complexity, degree of organization, and specialization of organisms over time, it is not progressive in the sense of leading toward some predetermined goal. Evolution makes organisms "better" only in the sense of increasing their adaptaion to their environment. There is no inexorable trend toward more advanced forms of life."
Assuming the validity of the Big Bang theory, it seems self-evident that the universe has been increasing in complexity since its genesis. Biological life has been a major leap in this drive towards complexity and for the moment, human beings epitomize the height of this process. The emergence of cognition, consciousness, and imagination in the primate brain seem like a small miracle, and the consequences enormous in the context of earth's history and destiny.
If there is no "inexorable trend toward more advanced forms of life" why did more advanced forms of life evolve with increasing velocity ever since the appearance of life some 3-3.6 billion years ago? Simpler forms of life are highly versatile and successful. What is the impetus for this increase in complexity? Is it merely a rule of natural selection that increasing complexity and organization are favaoured under certain environmental conditions because these are exactly the attributes of life that confer it improved fitness? If this is the case, there indeed is a trend towards complexity.
Increase in complexity seem to me an observational fact. What I really would like to know is why. More importantly, why did life first emerge? I do not think this is an insignificant question. Was it simply a fortuitous accident? But then how do you define 'accident' in the context of the natural universe?
Can the universe as a whole be also under the control of an evolutionary mechanism of some sort, in which biological evolution may be integrated?
Thanks,
JIM
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. . . . A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill." ---H. L. Mencken
[This message has been edited by JIM, 01-28-2004]
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