Even those in that thread trying to argue in favour of evolution by natural selection get it wrong, such as the definition of “fittest.”

1587
Tarkloon
Apr 20, 2008 • 9:36:14pm

re: #1562 Killgore Trout

Evolution is not random.

/hate to quibble with someone whose side I’m on, but yeah, sometimes it is random.

The “generally non-random” vs “random” field is being studied pretty thoroughly right now. e.g. taking an alpha male situation into account, in this case survival of the fittest usually counts; but suppose the fittest bull charges and sticks his leg in a gopher hole, tumbles, breaks his neck. The weaker bull has a lot of offspring. So there is quite a bit of randomness to natural selection, the “fittest” is not always the predominant.

Aside from “fittest” referring to being “fittest for the environment, not alpha male,” that actually is non-random natural selection in the example.

Bulls running around sticking their legs in gopher holes and breaking their necks is a natural selection pressure for bulls that don’t do that. Bulls that do not break their own necks are more fit than those who do.