[MD] Dawkins supports the MOQ

[Platt Holden]

Hi All:

In a recent interview biologist Richard Dawkins provided the following 
capsule description of evolution:

"Natural selection is a guided process, guided not by any higher power, 
but simply by which genes survive and which genes don't survive. That's a 
non-random process. The animals that are best at whatever they do -- 
hunting, flying fishing, swimming, digging -- whatever the species does, 
the individuals that are best at it are the ones that pass on the genes. 
It's because of this non-random process that lions are good at hunting, 
antelopes so good at running away from lions, and fish are so good at 
swimming."

 http://beliefnet.com/story/178/story_17889.html

In this quote I especially noted "guided process," "survive," "best" and 
"good" -- all strongly reminiscent of the MOQ. 

But, as usual for evolutionary theorists, there's no attempt on Dawkin's 
part to answer the Pirsig's question: "Why do the fittest survive? What's 
the motive?" (The lack of scientific curiosity when it comes to questions 
like this baffles me since scientists loudly claim that they are dedicated 
to uncovering the "truth" about what causes this or that to occur.)

Agreeing with the "guided process" that Dawkins attributes to evolution,  
Pirsig takes it one step further to answer the question,  "Why do the 
fittest survive?"  

"The patterns of life are constantly evolving in response to something 
'better' than that which these laws have to offer." (Lila, 11--referring 
to the laws of physics.)

"Response to something better" Evolution in a nutshell. 

Best,
Platt