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I may be in territory I don't totally understand but here goes one man's counter explanation to the difficulties of "survival of the fittest" and Macroevolution. Maybe an answer to Elaine's persistent, "What about the Platypus?" <BR> <BR><blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1><b>quote:</b></font><p>Stabilization Theory <BR> <BR> <BR>The main claims of stabilization theory, which distinguish it from neo-Darwinian theory, can be summarized as follows: <BR> <BR>(1) The typical form treated as a species comes into being via certain well-known, well-documented genetic processes ("stabilization processes") that produce new stable forms in an extremely rapid manner; <BR> <BR>(2) These processes produce new forms that are, for genetic reasons, inherently stable from the time of their inception right up to the time of their extinction. A corollary of this claim is the theory's assertion that any given type of organism produced by such a process has a negligible tendency to change over time in response to environmental constraints. <BR> <BR> <BR>... <BR> <BR>It is encouraging to imagine a world in which individual competition and selfishness cease to be biological givens, where each type of organism has a fixed nature that holds its own against an impotent environment. There is hope in this view of life, in which nature is no longer "red in tooth and claw," where the necessity of struggle ceases to be an axiom. In such a world we will be able to abandon the factory metaphor, turn our backs on the efficient assembly line, and instead embrace alternative ideals more consistent with our own nature. Relieved of the grim duty of destroying our imagined competitors for the sake of mere survival, we can escape Darwin's ruthless ratios of increase and rise to a higher moral plane where we, as individuals and as societies, can build ourselves environments filled with "sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not." And in this new world we will be able to study, and perhaps come fully to know, the origins of living forms.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote> <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.macroevolution.net/concluding-remarks.html" target=_top>http://www.macroevolution.net/concluding-remarks.h tml</a>
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