re: #187 ludwigvanquixote

And that is exactly the point. The confusion comes from misunderstanding what is actually possible given the constraints of the system.

If a mutation kills, then it is out of the picture. If a certain protein would arise from a certain starting point through say 5 mutations, but the first mutation killed, then all things that might arise from subsequent mutations don’t happen and can’t happen.

Yes. The logic of natural selection is beautifully simple, really. It seems to me that you would have to really really want to disbelieve it in order to fail to see that.