RE: evolution

[John Clavin <jclavin@microsoft.com>]

Now there's a leading question ;-)
There are probably as many different answers to that as there are
philosophical/belief systems in the world.

I think the key to answering this involves splitting the question into two
parts - short term and long term.

In the short term (species A evolving into species B) you could argue for a
reason. Take for example, the various instances of Gigantism that we see
through the whole fossil record (not just dinos). If there's some obvious
advantage (e.g. Giraffe's got taller so they could eat the leaves other
mammals couldn't reach) then you could say they evolved greater height for a
reason.
In the longer term (amoeba to Human, for example) there's no scientific
reason for evolution to progress that way - so many options along the way
that from a purely scientific perspective it's impossible to say that long
term evolution happens for a reason.


Whether there's a theological/philosophical reason to evolution is an
entirely different question, which I'm not even going to attempt to answer,
and which discussion doesn't belong on this mailing list.


John

-----Original Message-----
From: anton.eissens@philips.com [mailto:anton.eissens@philips.com]
Sent: 06 March 2000 15:25
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: evolution


does evolution happen for a reason?
Or do changes just happen to a life-form and if it helps than that's nice
and comfy, but if something happens and it's not an contribution to life it
gradually dies out, but what if the evolution doesn't have a negative nor a
positive effect does it stay 
alive than this is evolution?

(kijken wat voor visies en misschien feiten eruit komen Bert!)

Anton Eissens
Philips Semiconductors bv
Innovation & Engineering Group (IEG)
phone Philips: 0599-632483
e-mail: anton.eissens@philips.com