Causality and mechanism are one in the same, at least how I view it. What causes evolution? Descent with modification filtered through natural selection. What is the mechanism of evolution? Descent with modification filtered through natural selection.
Sounds like you're asking it wrong. If a footprint were found in snow, for example.
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However, if the question "where do the atoms come from" is asked, then chemistry is not able to answer that question.
In a similar vein, if the question "where did life come from" is asked, then evolution is not able to answer that question --
The origin of the footprint doesn't answer how the foot made the depression in the snow, which would be explaining the mechanism of it. I could be wrong, however, as I am usually missing something lol
Thanks for the tips, Zen, and for the welcome.
Quite. Every three-year-old has discovered that if you go on asking "why?" for long enough, eventually you exhaust the knowledge of your parents. But this doesn't invalidate all the answers given before you reach that point.
I'm inclined to agree with you.