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Do you believe evolution happened and is happening? Do you think a higher power guides evolution or is it random?
It is real; however I cannot tick the evolution happens box because of the "its random" part, it is not random since the process it operates by is natural selection which negates the randomness.
Well...see, I didn't see the option I wanted. Evolution happens, but I don't think it's necessarily "random". That isn't to say there's a higher power pulling the strings and turning the knobs. I think, instead, that evolution occurs on the basis of necessity. Adaptations and species diversity occur in response to environmental needs.
A mutation doesn't arise in response to necessity.
Yet at the same time, I don't know that evolution is really proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Humanity has not yet scientifically observed one species genetically transform into another substantially different species with which it cannot interbreed... only various fossils can be pointed to that supposedly show transitions from this to that... say Eohippus to Mesohippus to modern horses. Of the transitions themselves we remain lacking in direct observation, and in my opinion a number of questions remain unanswered about such transitions.
Did I mention mutations?
To me its a mix between the first two options haha... kind of a paradox but i think a higher power initiated the possibility of life/evolution to happen in this universe of uniformity, and i think that higher power new exactly what original seeds of life would turn into wherever they were able to pop-up... and the potential of these life forms are only limited by the bounds of the physics around them(whatever the first sparks of life were like random proteins/ bacteria.)
With this theory of mine i don't see how i could think of any life-form as better then another. All life is holy and has a "soul" to me... and this i pretty much the very basis of why i am a deist.
Science doesn't work this way. Science is about falsifying hypotheses. We can never know with certainty any scientific hypothesis.
Science, and scientists, also have not "scientifically observed" mountain ranges being formed. The fact that we cannot observe over the span of one human life the process under question is not a valid basis upon which to declare a hypothesis falsified.
We have plenty of evidence of the speciation in progress.
A demonstration of how small changes can lead to species-level differences is provided by ring species, in which two reproductively isolated forms are connected by a chain of intermediate populations. We review proposed cases of ring species and the insights they provide into speciation. Ring species have been viewed both as illustrations of the history of divergence of two species from their common ancestor and as demonstrations that speciation can occur in spite of gene flow between the diverging forms. Theoretical models predict that speciation with gene flow can occur when there is divergent ecological selection, and geographical differentiation increases the likelihood of speciation. Thus ring species are ideal systems for research into the role of both ecological and geographical differentiation in speciation, but few examples have been studied in detail. The Greenish warbler is a ring species in which two northward expansions around the Tibetan plateau have been accompanied by parallel evolution in morphology, ecology, and song length and complexity. However, songs have diverged in structure, resulting in a lack of recognition where the reproductively isolated forms come into contact in Siberia. Our analysis suggests that these differences could have arisen even with gene flow, and that parallel rather than divergent ecological changes have led to divergence in sexually selected traits and subsequent speciation.
The evolutionary divergence of a single species into two has never been directly observed in nature, primarily because speciation can take a long time to occur. A ring species, in which a chain of intergrading populations encircles a barrier and the terminal forms coexist without interbreeding, provides a situation in which variation in space can be used to infer variation in time. Here we reconstruct the pathway to speciation between two reproductively isolated forms of greenish warbler (Phylloscopus trochiloides). These two taxa do not interbreed in central Siberia but are connected by a long chain of intergrading populations encircling the Tibetan Plateau to the south. Molecular data and climatic history imply that the reproductively isolated taxa came into contact following expansions northward around the western and eastern sides of the plateau. Parallel selection pressures for increased song complexity during the northward expansions have been accompanied by divergence in song structure. Playback experiments show that the two Siberian forms do not recognize each other's songs. Our results show how gradual divergence in a trait involved in mate choice leads to the formation of new species.
To be clear: Mutations are random, and are what allow changes. "Survival of the fittest" isn't really random, but it is also not directed(assuming no higher power). It's a clever phrase to describe what mutations tend to flourish. WHen I said "evolutiuon is random", I meant kinda all of that, but did not explain clearly. My apologies to any who answered wrong based on that.
I think evolution happens and I think it was initiated by a higher power, but I don't think it's "guided" by a higher power.Do you believe evolution happened and is happening? Do you think a higher power guides evolution or is it random?