Survival of the fittest - what does it mean ? [Page 2] ::: Mobile View

Quote from: Anacoluthon64 on January 18, 2008, 13:19:23 PM

Quote from: metari1 on January 18, 2008, 11:37:16 AM

In what way would your sentence not be a tautology, …

In the way that it describes a statistical trend, not each and every specific instance. In the same way as saying that a fair die will on average show a six once in six throws; however you cannot guarantee a six on any particular throw or series of throws of finite length.

Darwin was refering to animals. Give me a way of disproving, falsifying what he said in relation to what he was refering to in terms of kittens for example.

Quote from: metari1 on January 18, 2008, 14:09:48 PM

Darwin was refering to animals. Give me a way of disproving, falsifying what he said in relation to what he was refering to in terms of kittens for example.

It seems that on metari1-world, bacteria don’t count among animals.

All right then, kittens it is: Divide a population of about 1,000 kittens into two groups of roughly equal size. Isolate them from one another. Let group one have free access to good quantities of clean, fresh water, while group two has access only to a small stagnant, arsenic-laced cesspool. If, after a few generations, group two is larger in number than group one, your dream will have been realised.

If not, there’s good reason to think that you’re having a nightmare instead.

'Luthon64

To be more precise, if group two did have surviving kittens and they did not mutate any special ways of dealing with their stagnant environment as explained through NS or SotF, but instead required their new survival abilities through some other means - divine intervention or otherwise some unexplained phenomenon, then evolutionist will have to revise their theories.
The same goes if group one does not mutate and has surviving kittens and they are all still the same as the ones at the start.

True enough, but in an answer to metari1's original question that I addressed, i.e. "In what way would the sentence, 'an individual that is better adapted to it's environment than another member of it's species, that it is in competition with for resources, will be more likely to survive and pass on it's genes' not be a tautology," one need only consider differential survival rates. Mutations can influence differential survival rates but are not required. Ditto pre-existing genetic diversity. The point is that these rates are the statistical results of interactions between individuals and their environment.

'Luthon64

Some reading matter:Natural Selection at Work: A case study.Methuselah Flies: A Case Study in the Evolution of Aging. The book presents a trailblazing project on the biology of aging. It describes research on the first organisms to have their lifespan increased, and their aging slowed, by hereditary manipulation.Scientific American's 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense. Pay special attention to No. 2.Dr MR Leipzig's Evolution Fact FAQ. See especially Nos. 6 through 11, inclusive.Incipient eye formation on some lizards' heads. What "fitness" could this possibly enable? Protection from Birds? Never!
'Luthon64