Re: virus: Virus: Opinions?

Bob Hartwig (hartwig@ais.net)
Thu, 18 Jun 1998 12:17:20 -0500


Please provide the reference, Johnny. I'd like to know if he was
contrasting single-step selection with cumulative selection.

BTW, you're right that living things are extrordinarily complex, giving the
appearance of conscious "design". It's true that the odds of a human, or
dog, or even a bacterium coming together spontaneously is for all practical
purposes, zero. Unfortunately for creationists, this isn't how evolution
works. Evolution works by "cumulative selection". The individual
mutations that work to shape us are very small, and indeed random. Those
mutations that don't help us to survive and reproduce (the vast majority)
are inconsequential to the species as a whole. Those mutations that do
help us are passed down to our descendents, and eventually to the species
as a whole. So it's virtually impossible for a human to come together by
chance in a single step. It's not impossible (in fact, it's inevitable)
for tiny beneficial changes to occur by chance. Add up enough of these
beneficial changes, and you have a complex, well adapted organism. It
doesn't require a creator, just lots of time.

You're probably asking "where did the original organism come from?" The
original organism (probably an organic protein molecule) was simple enough
to be generated by the primeval conditions of the early earth. In fact,
scientists have "created" these molecules in the laboratory, by simulating
the atmospheric conditions and electrical disturbances of the early earth.

For a *much* better explanation than mine, read "The Blind Watchmaker" by
Richard Dawkins.

At 07:44 AM 6/18/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I did my research. It was Albert Einstein that said it.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Joe E. Dees <jdees0@students.uwf.edu>
>To: virus@lucifer.com <virus@lucifer.com>
>Date: Thursday, June 18, 1998 12:41 AM
>Subject: Re: virus: Virus: Opinions?
>
>
>> From: "John W. Rea" <matziq@airmail.net>
>> To: <virus@lucifer.com>
>> Subject: Re: virus: Virus: Opinions?
>> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 00:09:27 -0500
>> Reply-to: virus@lucifer.com
>
>> Not sure. I think it was a scientist of some sorts.
>Probably "creation science"
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: FallAwake@aol.com <FallAwake@aol.com>
>> To: virus@lucifer.com <virus@lucifer.com>
>> Date: Wednesday, June 17, 1998 9:03 PM
>> Subject: Re: virus: Virus: Opinions?
>>
>>
>> >In a message dated 98-06-16 13:54:40 EDT, you write:
>> >
>> ><< Someone said there was a better chance of a bomb exploding in a
>printing
>> > press
>> > and creating the Websters Dictionary. >>
>> >was a he an atheist?
>> >
>>
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