Collins: Why This Scientist Believes in God

[Dumpy Dooby]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

Not necessarily. Do I agree with the idea that is survival of the fittest? Of course I do, it's common sense. Do I agree that the bombardier beetle evolved slowly over time? I can't...the species would have died off immediately once the gasses mixed inside his body and blew himself up. Tha'ts just not something you can do slowly.

"Survival of the fittest" is a bit of a misnomer. The concept was never mentioned or even implied by Darwin, and for very good reason. Darwin observed that propagation occurs as the result of genes that yield more efficient methods of reproduction and sustenance until future reproduction. That is, Natural Selection operates with the smallest family unit, not the individual or the individual's attributes. The honey bee, for example, dies when it stings. How is that evolutionarily beneficial? Well, the smallest family unit happens to be the entire colony. The means of successful reproduction has very little to do with the individual males; rather, successful reproduction and sustenance, for them, is reliant on the protection of the individual female (the queen), which is why it's beneficial for the males to sacrifice themselves: so that the smallest family unit may survive, and the genes of the males may be passed down, hence the increasingly popular term, "selfish gene." Or if you're more into aphorisms, I prefer Samuel Butler's, "Sometimes a chicken is just an egg's way of making another egg."

Just so there's no confusion, it's also worth mentioning that Marlin Perkins explained that animals sacrifice themselves for the good of the species in some sort of uncontrollable fit of virtuosity a la, "I sacrifice myself for you mine kinder!" Perkins, however, was oh-so-very wrong, despite how it may have looked upon first glance.