Pete, I'm afraid that I have been unclear.  It it not as black or white as
you try to paint it.

 I can only speak for myself, but can assure you that Dick also has a deep
understanding of the subject.  There are of course plenty of linkages and
non-random genetic operators.  I am in no way disputing that.

However, no matter how well an individual organism's genome modifies
itself, the environment (Nature) will add a stochastic element as to
whether that individual actually passes its genes to the next generation.
An individual can have the "most adaptive" gene combination in history, but
can still be killed before reproduction by a wildfire, blizzard, or falling
meteorite.  Thus, the critical successful passing of its genes to the next
generation will always involve a degree of chance.  This is the chance
element of which I speak.

Then there is the mathematical element upon which evolution is
based--again, evolution is perhaps best defined as *"change in the
heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive
generations."  *The key words are "change" and "population."  It's all
about the *proportional change* in prevalence of particular heritable
characteristics *in the population as a whole.* This is the mathematical
component--simple proportions.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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