Craig: beautiful series. Mostly agreeable terms. I used some of it in a slightly different sense, but not oppositional;
*Organisms do not adapt. *We have to realize the diversity of ALL existence and "similarly looking" groups show differences, observed. or beyond our capability of detection. Those with closer details to fit into the existing (also unlimited?) variety of nature will survive, giving to the scientist the view of 'adaptation. A good example is the activity of antibiotics: no microbe will adapt (or decide a change in offspring development!) upon REALIZING the danger of an antibiotic, so whichever kinds are receptive, will die. The different variations (undetected by our ongoing measuring capabilities) will survive and 'fill up' the empty niche fast, giving the impression upon the identically identified (but different) species to have become immune. Indeed it is a 'natural selection' (see below). *Natural selection *(see above) comes back to diversity. *The Fittest and their survival *refers to the circumstances and their change: Dinosaurs were the 'fittest' when they got extinct, because of 2ary changes in the environment. John is right to eliminate the superlative. Fit fir survival is sufficient. *Adaptation *would imply evaluation of what's wrong and how's it better and THEN direct changes in achieving such. A social group MAY do that (not many to be found) but 'species'? especially ONE member in its lifetime? not likely. *Random? * I deny the term since it's application would negate the possibility of prediction of 'the next step" in natural sciences. There may be applicable circumstances among which we don't know how to select the most likely one, as I recall Russell's "relatively random" case, but once we can 'generate' randomity, it is not "random". * Chance? * coinciding with more than we know of at present. *Evolution *IMO and in the sense of Craig's word of misconception hides some teleological content. If the 'end' (goal?) is fixed, Why EVOLUTION? why did the Creator(???) make it perfect to begin with? In my (agnostic) view there is an infinite complexity "out there" of which only some proportion infiltrates our knowable world in a steadily enriching fashion - adjusted to the mental capabilities we carry. This is our "MODEL" of the world. There are relations we may (not?) know about and effects unknown upon cases we think we (may) know about. I like the Flat Earth as an example, Brent wrote the other day an appreciable list of such. I would add the case of 'electricity' observed in certain fashion, described and calculated (used?) as we presently understand it. It may be more, different from what we think today. Volta and Faraday captured one aspect only. And we feel SOOO smart! John Mikes On Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 9:47 PM, Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com>wrote: > I was so impressed with this page > http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/misconceptions_faq.php#a1 > > that I thought it was worth listing a few here: > > *MISCONCEPTION: Natural selection involves organisms trying to adapt.* > > *MISCONCEPTION: Natural selection acts for the good of the species.* > > *MISCONCEPTION: The fittest organisms in a population are those that are > strongest, healthiest, fastest, and/or largest.* > > *MISCONCEPTION: Natural selection is about survival of the very fittest > individuals in a population.* > > *MISCONCEPTION: All traits of organisms are adaptations.* > > *MISCONCEPTION: Evolutionary theory implies that life evolved (and > continues to evolve) randomly, or by chance. > > **MISCONCEPTION: Evolution results in progress; organisms are always > getting better through evolution.* > > ** > > * > * > > * > * > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
