(September 9, 2013 at 8:47 am)Drich Wrote: This however is not the case. Algae is one of the oldest forms of plant life and it has one of the highest capasities for processing solar energy. which suggests that modern plant life is mutating/evolving to a less effencient form. (to adapt itself to our sun.)
This is what I mean. Evolution does not, in and of itself, "move" in any direction. It simply happens for better or worse, and those life forms that cannot survive, do not. A less-efficient plant that can still process the sunlight it needs in order to survive will continue to survive, and will likely evolve into other species of plant which may or may not be as efficient. Those that become inefficient enough will die out.
We know that many, many species of life have become extinct over the ages. Some scientists guess that more than 99% of the species that have ever existed have also ceased to exist. How does that point to a design from a divine intellect? The fact that so many species die out makes sense in a world where evolution happens in an unguided fashion and not in a linearly progressive form. Where does god fit into a scenario where the vast majority of lifeforms fail?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
