Konrad Lorenz

Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.

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In microbiology the roles of mutation and selection in evolution are coming to be better understood through the use of bacterial cultures of mutant strains.

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Natural selection is not evolution.

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Charles Darwin

Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus have a better chance of surviving, for, of the many individuals of any species which are periodically born, but a small number can survive. I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection.

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Simple Observation #192 - Natural Selection seems to be......

Natural selection seems to be another term for the will of God operating in creation
and evolution is the overall process through which It maintains this vital relation.

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Animals can adapt to problems and make inventions, but often no faster than natural selection can do its work - the world acts as its own simulator in the case of natural selection.

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Since natural selection requires a function to select, an irreducibly complex biological system, if there is such a thing, would have to arise as an integrated unit for natural selection to have anything to act on.

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Thus the genetic basis to the origin of bird species is to be sought in the inheritance of adult traits that are subject to natural and sexual selection.

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The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.

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An ecological thought eked out

God
doesn't get much sympathy
from believers
or unbelievers
(though for different reasons)
but just imagine
how He must feel
when, having created
all the glorious,
ludicrous
(He has a sense of humour surely)
multitude of species,

mankind just knocks them off one by one,
I mean, just imagine having all those extinct species
in your Mind,
sketches, working models, problems resolved,
fine tuning, (er, evolution in later versions?)

but no longer there for all to see
and sometimes laugh
despite the fact that
they themselves don't see the joke, and live OK thanks very much...

it would try the patience of a saint
as they say

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Crime is a fact of the human species, a fact of that species alone, but it is above all the secret aspect, impenetrable and hidden. Crime hides, and by far the most terrifying things are those which elude us.

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L.H. Matthews

The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an unproved theory, is it then a science or faith?

L.H. Matthews in Origin of Species, Introduction (1872)Report problemRelated quotes
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0015 'Intelligent Design' Goes Bats

Once upon a time
in the forests of Ecuador -
but this is a true story,
who'd dare to make it up?

there was and is today
a flower with a deep bell-like cup
whose tempting nectar is just out of reach
to all but one species

In the forests of Ecuador
there's a species of bat
with a tongue 9 centimetres,
that's 3 inches, long
and therefore quite a proportion
of its bodyweight
which is the only species
yes you've guessed it

there's something going on here

it's called something like
species co-evolution -
have they come to some cute arrangement
and if so, what language did they whisper in?

that means, over hundreds, thousands, millions?
of years, each generation the flower's bell
got infinitesimally longer and
the bat's tongue got longer

Had they allowed for the possibility
that one day, mankind,
meddling as mankind does,
might mess up the rain -forests of Ecuador
and suddenly, a shortage of
flowers - or of bats?
the deal's off... but anyway,
who gave these guys the right
to bargain this private deal?

Can it be that Intelligent Design
sticks a offside pass or two in?
A kinda divine joke by Evolution
or vice versa..

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It's A Natural Fact

You tell me to trust in you
That your love is forever real
I never even doubted you
Because that's how I too feel
It's A Natural Fact
You ask me to wait for you
And your return soon again
I've been waiting ever since
For your love I can depend
It's A Natural Fact
You ask me to love you only
With all my heart and might
Haven't you already noticed
I will love you all of my life
It's A Natural Fact

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0232 That spider

I'm still waiting for an answer:
does that spider on the hedge
just do what spiders do;
or does (he, she, it) think?

Is it just a robot, programmed
by a pretty skilful God?
In which case you could say
God does its thinking for it
which is surely even more impressive
considering the number of spiders
and other species. Like us.

So where does that leave us?

On our knees
with a lot more questions.

And don't tell me it's evolution -
who made the laws of evolution, then?

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In fact, death seems to have been a rather late invention in evolution. One can go a long way in evolution before encountering an authentic corpse.

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Evolution thus is merely contingent on certain processes articulated by Darwin: variation and selection.

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Although I insist that God has always had the power to intervene directly in nature to create new forms, I am willing to be per-suaded that He chose not to do so and instead employed secondary natural causes like random mutation and natural selection.

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There's lots of institutions and lots of different cultures, and so that's the kind of thing that parents need to be able to evaluate, and students themselves, when they make a selection.

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As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification.

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And, you know, the fact is, if you believe in evolution, we all have a common ancestor, and we all have a common ancestry with the plant in the lobby. This is what evolution tells us. And, it's true. It's kind of unbelievable.

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