I've just finished the book Darwin Devolves by Michael Behe, and it was a good read. His main argument is that usually the favorable mutations that natural selection has to work on are due to mutations that break or degrade genes. Devolution for survival is the norm, and mutations that restore original function are highly unlikely, so the mutated organism stays in the devolved state.
This makes it difficult for the object or organism to be co-opted by mutation and selection for another purpose, since a loss of function reduces the raw material for evolution to work on. Behe thus describes mutation and natural selection as self-limiting, he investigates what evolution has actually done, in Darwin's finches for example, and concludes that the edge of evolution is at the level of biological "family". The finches presumably came from an original group of finches that landed on the islands many years ago, and produced, a finch.
Blessings,
Lee
This makes it difficult for the object or organism to be co-opted by mutation and selection for another purpose, since a loss of function reduces the raw material for evolution to work on. Behe thus describes mutation and natural selection as self-limiting, he investigates what evolution has actually done, in Darwin's finches for example, and concludes that the edge of evolution is at the level of biological "family". The finches presumably came from an original group of finches that landed on the islands many years ago, and produced, a finch.
Blessings,
Lee
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