I am having a debate with DebiJ…a good friend and member here…though she doesn’t post enough! I say natural selection is evolution, she says they walk hand in hand. ut are not the same thing. Tell her she’s wrong.
B
damn slow key…
I’m afraid she’s right. Evolution is a process; natural selection is a tool by which it works.
rats
Evolution is what happens; natural selection is how it happens.
Sorta like continental drift; it’s the outcome, plate tectonics is the mechanism.
Sorta like salvation and faith.
So it’s just a matter of semantics?
Well, it’s not just “wordplay” if that’s what you mean by semantics (the popularized connotation).
Consider that a tiger is a cat, but not all cats are tigers. Yes, that is semantics, but no, it is not trivial.
Think of it this way: evolution works by the process of natural selection just as democracy works by the process of elections. But democracy and elections are not the same.
I have tried to go this similar route before to explain the difference between a context for government (like libertarianism) and a government structure (like democracy, monarchy, etc.) Some people got it. Some dismissed it as “just semantics”.
As I’ve posted elsewhere in such discussions, Evolution is the fact that organisms change through time, while Natural Selection is one of the mechanisms describing how/why this change occurs. The two are often confused, but there is a difference, and it’s more than semantic.
So, Asmodeus, unfortunately, I, at least, can’t say DebiJ is wrong. Sorry.
Yes, Evolution is a fact, but natural selection is a THEORY of how that fact works. However, natural selection is not seriously debated. What is seriously argued about is the RATE, ie: “slow & steady” or "fits and stops’. So, when you hear about the “Theory” of Evolution, it is not Evolution itself which is the theory, it is how that fact actually operates.
Also, realize that there are other methods of evolution. There’s evolution by artificial selection, for instance. Though now pretty much debunked, evolution by the passing on of acquired characteristics was once a serious theory, as well.