home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!slc3.ins.cwru.edu!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!csa3.lbl.gov!sichase
- From: sichase@csa3.lbl.gov (SCOTT I CHASE)
- Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
- Subject: Re: origin of life articl
- Date: 20 Aug 92 21:09:18 GMT
- Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
- Lines: 29
- Distribution: na
- Message-ID: <25634@dog.ee.lbl.gov>
- References: <1992Aug19.032310.3260@hfsi.uucp> <78055@ut-emx.uucp>
- Reply-To: sichase@csa3.lbl.gov
- NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.254.198
- News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4
-
- In article <78055@ut-emx.uucp>, llama@pooh.cc.utexas.edu (sine nomine) writes...
- >
- >also, just because something is very very unlikely does not mean it
- >won't happen. the fallacy that because the odds against something like
- >dna assembling itself spontaneously are one in some huge number, it
- >could never happen is based on the idea that there was some small
- >number of events. if there were 3 billion combinations of elements
- >formed, then saying that the odds were one in a billion against one of
- >them being organic doesn't look so great anymore.
-
- The real fallacy in the original argument about the incredible odds against
- complex life evolving by the random mechanism of evolution is that it
- completely misrepresents evolution.
-
- Mutation is a source of *random* variation.
-
- But natural selection is a directional pressure. It selects specific
- traits (generated randomly) which are well suited to current conditions.
-
- Read almost any essay by S.J. Gould if you want to see an eloquent and
- intelligent exposition of the true meaning of evolution.
-
- -Scott
- --------------------
- Scott I. Chase "The question seems to be of such a character
- SICHASE@CSA2.LBL.GOV that if I should come to life after my death
- and some mathematician were to tell me that it
- had been definitely settled, I think I would
- immediately drop dead again." - Vandiver
-