Can we prove that life is random?

[lucaspa]

Here's a thought to ponder. How long did it take for humans who migrated to Europe/North Western Asia to develope lighter skin' date=' eyes and hair? It makes since that they would eventually due to the colder environment. I think that it's amazing that the human body can adapt/evolve to fit such a vast environment.

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Less than 50,000 years for the changes in skin color etc. Of course, with 20 years per generation, that's still 2500 generations. In fruit flies, 2500 generations was enough to get a whole new species. So humans are a bit slow.

 

Actually, mostly the human body did not adapt. Most of our ability to live in extreme climates comes from technology.

 

Adapt/Evolve can be considered an argument in itself. Do random mutations cause the adaption or does the environment encourage it? As stated before; I am not an expert here...just throwing stuff out.

 

Natural selection is a two step process:

1. Variation, of which mutations are a part.

2. Selection.

 

You must have BOTH in order to get an "adaptation". As I noted above, the variation (whether caused by mutation or recombination) is a possible design. BUT, you don't know whether that design fits the environment -- is an adaptation -- until after selection. IOW, that design has to be tested against the environment to see if it works. An "adaptation" is a design that works in that particular environment.