Doesn the evidence for natural selection show that God is unnecessary to explain biological origins?
One should never confuse the survival of the fittest with the arrival of the fittest. While natural selection can explain microevolution and the origin of species, it is becoming increasingly clear that microevolution cannot be extrapolated to account for major evolutionary change and the origin of the higher taxa. Darwinian processes may produce minor variations on pre-existing themes and technically generate new species in the process, but natural history reveals that most major themes of life were ushered on-stage during the Cambrian explosion during a period of low species diversity. The origin of species and the origin of the phyla are clearly two different phenomena. Were Darwin’s extrapolations justified? Judging from the conclusions of many of the scientists attending one of the most important conferences in evolutionary biology in the past forty years, the answer is probably not. “The central question of the Chicago conference was whether the mechanisms underlying microevoluti
