Darwin's Debt to Christianity

UniversalRemonster provided you correct information. This is not an issue concerning which there is any disagreement within evolution. With few exceptions, all offspring differ from parents. So when you say this in Message 20: "Darwin's scenario" has no beginning. Evolution is just an ongoing process of descent with modification and natural selection. Almost all descent involves modification. There was never a "one member being different at birth," because nearly all members are different at birth. It is the rare exception when this is not the case. We've even discovered that identical twins are not 100% genetically identical. You're comparing a single event in Christianity with all reproductive events over the entire history of life on this planet.--Percy

This would be false. The theory of evolution, like all other theories, is tentative and open to change in light of new evidence or improved insight.--Percy

This would be false. It was the highly mathematical work of the population geneticists in the 20's and 30's that resulted in the modern synthesis of Darwinian evolution and genetics, and there are many other parts of evolution that are highly mathematical. For example, Mendel's studies of pea plants mathematically showed precisely what would happen when genes were combined in certain ways, and the science has grown immensely since Mendel's time. This would be false. Already harboring sincere doubts about Christianity after his ideas concerning evolution took shape, the death of his daughter Annie in 1851 turned him toward agnosticism. In an 1887 letter he said, "an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind." (see the Wikipedia article on Charles Darwin)--Percy

I already mentioned Mendel, and the Wikipedia article on Mendelian inheritance describes some of the simple mathematical ratios his research uncovered.You can also check out Deriving genotypic and allelic frequencies where they show some very simple calculations of population genetics. For example, here's a simple calculation of allelic frequency: The Wikipedia article on the Hardy-Weinberg principle (an equilibrium theory of population genetics) shows just how complexly mathematical evolution can be, so you might want to check that out, too.--Percy