Evolution is not random?

I've been digging around this whole ID vs evolution "controversy" and
it seems to me the hardest thing to swallow is the idea that mutation
is mostly random. I mean, IDists state how improbable it is that life
evolved at random and "therefore godditit"

I kind of agree with them, but I definitely do not come to their
conclusion. I think a lot of people underestimate the complexity and
versatility of life. Has anyone given it serious thought that life
has developed the mechanisms to deliberately adapt to changes in it's
environment? I mean adaptation as a verb not a noun.

How about a story: There is this bacteria that runs into a new
chemical compound in it's environment. It ingests it, doesn't die,
and then the adaptation process starts to work. Chemicals are thrown
at this new item to try to "eat it", other mechanisms modify the
genome to produce new chemicals to throw at it until the right
combination of chemicals or a new chemical does the job. This new
chemical is already encoded in the genome and is passed onto new
generations. This bacteria has an extra food source and therefore an
advantage over other bacteria that haven't figured it out yet. Thus a
bacteria has evolved to eat Nylon.

DNA acts like memory with "junk DNA" used as locations to create or
reactivate amino acids allowing the system to adapt without hurting
itself. There is a system that deliberately modifies the DNA that
explores high probability solutions before low probability (chemistry
anyone?) solutions and the system itself adapts as well. The cell is a
superb chemical factory with complicated chemical systems and is
probably a better "chemical engineer" than we could ever be. (well,
with billions of years to perfect it's craft, I would not be
surprised)

Some possible conclusions:
- Radical changes in environment spurs the adaptive process:
punctuated equilibrium(?), Cambrian explosion(?)
- The system would evolve to include mechanisms for the adaptive
process: Male/Female differentiation, hyperevolution and other
mutation types(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation), natural
selection, natural death.
- Damage from the environment would be dealt with systemically as part
of the adaptive process.
- It could be scalable from micro evolution to macro evolution and why
not to an adaptive ecosystem (ranging from one organism/many cells to
many organisms)?
- it could include viruses. bacteria, proteins, and all other
life...it's all interconnected and a huge system.

Chaos theory is starting to show that complex systems can emerge from
the interplay of simple deterministic processes. Why does evolution
need to be random at all?

as an aside - male/female reproductive process guarantees adaptation
by producing a different generation EVERY generation and therefore, as
a mechanism for the adaptive process, would be very desirable and very
probable as an evolutionary advantage.

another side - it is NOT an advantage to overwhelm all other life in
your ecosystem: cancer, Ebola virus, etc. So the true advantage would
be to survive/evolve in your ecosystem without destroying it.

As for IDists, why COULDN'T any god be smart enough to create such a
system?

ummmm...am I just restating "Evolution" and calling it "Adaptive
Process"? Will a change in terms help the IDists accept it?

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Thermodynamic vs. Informational Entropy - for Dr. Marc Buhler
    ... How can those bacteria evolve without a germline? ... Odd, isn't it, that by your definition of evolution only sexually ... Using only clonal reproduction bacteria can ... mutation and selection during the lifetime of the host dies with the ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Conservapedia gets schooled by biologist
    ... Richard Lenski is a biologist who recently found evidence for the ... emergence of new traits among E.coli bacteria, ... His results look a bit like evolution. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Experiment on Natural Selection
    ... explain *past* evolution, from the first replicator to modern life, ... There are laws which determine the ... of various kinds of bond between the atoms caused by the orbitals, ... and also random auto-catalytic sets of chemicals. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: I have another argument that needs refuting
    ... Random chemicals came ... to as a religion while evolution is called science? ... Other scientists disagree with him. ... This neutralizes the inhibitor, and causes a violent ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Conservapedia gets schooled by biologist
    ... Richard Lenski is a biologist who recently found evidence for the ... emergence of new traits among E.coli bacteria, ... His results look a bit like evolution. ...
    (talk.origins)
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