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Oct. 19, 2004 Sean Curtis is indeed misguided and typical of the closed-mindedness that finds itself unable to recognize chance as the cause of all life. And even more ridiculous is his idea that evolution is driven by thought – the only animal with the faculty of thought and reasoning is the human being; how can animals reason about their environment to the extent that they further their own development as a species? This is an idiotic and most illogical notion. Chance is indeed at the core of all existence. It is however, a difficult concept to grasp, as the significant result of chance only really manifest itself into observable phenomena over millions and even billions of years. The human life spans only about a century at most and we cannot quite contemplate the magnitude of even one million years. The simple truth is that over millions of years all possibilities play themselves off – every potential realizes in the end, given enough time. Essentially, evolution of species occurs via mutations, where these mutations can either survive or not survive in the present environment. For instance, giraffes once had short necks, whereas today they have long necks – this is a perfect example of the product of evolution. It stems from the law of survival of the fittest: those short-necked giraffes were eating from the ground like most other short- necked and four-legged animals do. Suddenly, their environment changed and no more vegetation remained on the ground, while the only other vegetation was up in the trees. Now, every now and then among any species mutations show their face – in this case, some giraffes were born with elongated necks and so these ones could reach the top of the trees and continue to eat! Ass a result, all the short-necked ones died out and the long-necks survived, continuing their genes: all subsequent giraffes were thus born from these previously labeled “freaks” or mutations and all came out with long necks. Today we see only long-necked giraffes! I doubt that these giraffes could think to themselves that they must begin to grow long necks in order to survive, and even if they could think they would not have been able to start growing their necks by their own will! This is a laughable thought! Sean Curtis says, “The notion that a species would be so fortunate, as by chance, to have offspring with changes that benefit its existence in an ever-changing environment is illogical at best. The concept leaves far too much for chance to be a viable speculation on its own.” - We see species everyday – human babies too, that are born with mutations and when the environment changes to their benefit they will be able to survive, because their mutations would suddenly become useful. Simply put, chance is an utterly viable vitality in life: Just think about gambling which is solely based on chance; people become rich or poor by taking chances. And in nature, chance and mutation is the very thing that forms life as we know it! If one really thinks about it, it is not even a question of chance at all: it is a matter of time – over time anything that can happen, will happen….it only seems as chance to us, because we cannot possibly fathom the passing of a million years. ------------ About the author Werner Reyneke: I am a 23 year old passionate writer/poet in my spare time and a computer programmer by proffession. Visit my website to see my first published book. I live in South Africa and have been published in a local newspaper (some poems in Haiku form) for the first time in February 2000. I have also been selected for publication in a VoicesNet Anthology (visit www.Voicesnet.org) and a Poetry.com (ILP Publishers) anthology called "Eternal Portraits"). Visit my website at: http://myweb.absa.co.za/wreyneke/Mybook.htm Email: wreyneke@absamail.co.za Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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