Symphony by accident

The effect of genetic drift is a strong function of population size. For instance, see this paper where they calculate the fixation rate for examples of neutral and advantageous alleles: http://www.tiem.utk.edu/~gavrila/583/C5.pdf. It concludes: You next say: I think you must be operating under the impression that advantageous mutations that do not reach fixation are somehow lost, which is definitely not the case. It also appears possible that you think fixation is some kind of holy grail for alleles, and that alleles that do not attain fixation do not have a significant impact on a population, also definitely not the case.--Percy

Mutation produces the variation. However, it is biological reproduction that pumps that variation into the filter. There's lots of force in that "pumping".

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

Indeed, the evidence from quantum physics is that everything is accidental in the Bolder-dash sense of "accident."

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

No, but when discussing evolution, fixation is quite important. After all, we compare the fixed mutations between species to extrapolate common ancestors.In the long run, only the fixed mutations will have a permanent impact. Temporary impacts from mutations that come and go through drift isn't relevant.A population, or sub-population, evolves through fixation.

Wherever did you get such a strange idea? Ultimately every allele in a population's genome arose through mutation. Which alleles will you deem mutations and which not, since they're all ultimately mutations. And how would you ever identify which mutations were fixated (which means a gene with only a single allele) without sampling every individual of a population? Two sentences, two misunderstandings.First, fixated alleles do not have a permanent impact as they are as vulnerable to mutations as any other allele.Second, non-fixated alleles do not have temporary impacts. Huge numbers of significant and influential alleles are not fixated.Like I said before, you seem to be thinking of fixation as some kind of pinnacle of achievement for an allele, and that a gene can have no significant role if it isn't fixated. This is not true.What is most important for the survival of species is variation. I bet the endangered Florida panther, which is well known for its lack of genetic diversity, has a much higher incidence of fixated alleles than non-endangered species. Fixation is only a good thing if you look at things from the allele's point of view. But it's the survival of the species that is of overwhelming importance, not the survival of alleles, and species survival depends upon variation, not fixation. Uh, no.--Percy

And specifically the eye. If he'd confined himself to saying that quantitatively with respect to DNA the majority of evolution was random he'd have been telling the truth and so doing nothing to further God's Glorious Cause Of Creationism.

Ahh yes, the ol' switcheroo. You are conflating neutral drift with positive selection. That is quite dishonest of you.Beneficial mutations, such as those leading to modern vision systems, do not fix through random drift. They are selected for. Mutations that change a species fitness do not follow random drift.

I fixed it for you.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie