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Refuting Arthur C. Clarke:

Date published: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:21:04 -0600



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Intelligent Design or Evolution?

'Darwin's Theory of Evolution - Natural Selection'

Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a relatively young theory as the ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander also theorised the evolution of life from non-life, many years before. So Darwin simply brought something new to the old philosophy -- a plausible theory "natural selection". Natural selection acts to preserve and accumulate small advantageous genetic mutations. Lets say a single member of a species mutated a nose, because it is advantagous to the species, its siblings would inherit that advantage and pass it on to their siblings and so on. The rest of the species that didn't have the advantage would gradually die out or go on to evolve into something different. What natural selection is, is the preservation of a functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the wild.

Darwin wrote, "Natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps". Darwin did say though, "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down". Such a complex organ would be known as an "irreducibly complex system". An irreducibly complex system is one composed of multiple parts, all of which are necessary for the system to function. If even one part is missing, the entire system will fail to function. Every individual part is integral. Thus, such a system could not have evolved slowly, piece by piece. The common mousetrap is an everyday non-biological example of irreducible complexity. It is composed of five basic parts: a catch (to hold the bait), a powerful spring, a thin rod called "the hammer", a holding bar to secure the hammer in place, and a platform to mount the trap. If any one of these parts is missing, the mechanism will not work. Each individual part is integral. The mousetrap is irreducibly complex.
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