Question

What do the following statements mean? [related to evolution]

"Evolution is not a directed process in the sense of determinism. It is a stochastic process based on chance events in nature and chance mutation in the organisms." Please explain the meaning of these two lines. It's from my biology book.

Answer 1

It is the result of luck, but also due to some adaptions...

Explanation:

What it basically means is that evolution generally cannot be predicted and will not be `100%` caused by previous events. It also states that evolution is a random process (well only in the first part), especially in the genetic information of the organism. Some mutations and base changes might occur for whatever reasons, and they are not caused by previous occurrences.

However, I think that for natural selection, that process is not random at all, it takes account of an organism's adaptions and inheritance, which is then passed down to its next generations, for optimal survivability.

Answer 2

Evolution is thought to be totally based on random accidental changes there is no force giving evolution direction or purpose

Explanation:

1. Darwinian evolution can also be termed descent with modification. Darwin felt that all organisms were descended from a common ancestor. This means that there has been a progression from the simple to the complex.

2. Neo Darwinian evolution was a response to Mendeleve genetics. The laws of genetics are conservative. That means that nothing new or novel is created in normal sexual or a sexual reproduction.
   According to the the laws of genetics descent with modification could not happen. The answer to this problem was thought to be random accidental mutations.

3. Some theorists proposed that there was some as yet undiscovered law or force that directed the mutations toward greater complexity as required by Darwinian evolution. Some theologians proposed that these random accidental changes were directed by God, so called theistic evolution.

4. The idea that evolutionary changes are directed either by God or by some unknown force is rejected by the philosophy of material realism or naturalism. Naturalism decrees that everything must happen only by natural causes. The only natural causes known to create changes in the DNA are random accidental mutations. These natural changes are undirected.

5. That the evolutionary changes created by accidental random mutations are undirected means that these changes instead of creating greater complexity can create more disorder and less useable information. This is the opposite as originally proposed by Darwinian evolution. In fact all empirically observed random accidental mutations result in a loss of information and complexity.
   The theory of Neo Darwinian evolution postulates that some of these accidental mutations somehow result in increased complexity and are preserved due to natural selection.

Conclusion The philosophy is that life and the cosmos are without meaning or direction Everything results form random accidental changes