The notion of one species evolving into another has
long puzzled me. I think I understand the mechanism of natural selection, and
what I get from it is that it would take huge timespans between members of a
species and their descendants to becoming another species.
I don’t get how symbiosis between species who would be
doomed without each other could possibly have evolved. If a certain plant needs
a certain insect and that insect needs that plant, then how did the one survive
without the other while they were evolving to that point? The complexity of the world of flora and
fauna is just too great for me to accept that it came together through such a
means.
Nonetheless, it is clear that a species can evolve new
attributes that are heritable. For example, the Inuit have a digestive system
that can handle the high Omega 3 fat diet they have. Certain peoples living at very high
elevations are able to absorb substantially more oxygen into their blood from
the thin air than I am. These are just a few examples of human evolution. I don’t
think though that these are natural selection at work. Each isn’t a case of
someone accidentally developing the trait and then his descendants surviving
more easily than the descendants of the folks who didn’t develop the enhancement.
I suspect that there is something in us that senses
need and triggers genetic adaptations…..some latencies that may be triggered by
experiences and environment. I can’t prove that of course, but it does seem to
me to be more plausible than natural selection.
Charles Hoy Fort answered Charles Darwin assertion of the survival of
the fittest by retorting that “weakness and stupidity survive everywhere.”
(Also see
(Also see
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