Contingent evolution (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Tuesday, June 24, 2014, 20:31 (3586 days ago) @ dhw

DHW: You may both be right (says the agnostic), but you have conveniently ignored the conclusion to this article:
> 
> "It's very exciting to have been able to directly study alternative ancient histories," Thornton said. "If evolutionary history could be relaunched from ancestral starting points, we would almost certainly end up with a radically different biology from the one we have now. Unpredictable genetic events are constantly opening paths to some evolutionary outcomes and closing the paths to others, all within the biochemical systems of our cells."
> 
> You take this to indicate purpose, because your starting point is an anthropocentric view of evolution, which ... just like the theory of abiogenesis ... is pure speculation. It is just as easy to take the above as meaning that "unpredictable" chance, not purpose, has dictated the biology we have now.-This is a typical statement of evolutionary faith, nothing more. "All of the evidence says it was not random, but I am going to believe that it was because it is easier than the alternative."-DHW, let me ask you a simple question: -What evidence is there for randomness in evolution?-I'm not asking if evolution is true or false, or the role of natural selection or anything else. I simply want to know what the evidence is for the assumption that the process is founded in random chance.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.