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} No, that's two separate statements, but I understand your confusion:
} proponents of Natural Selection will promote one or the other. If
} you gathered a hundred of them in a school gymnasium, about half would
} state the first, a third would state the second, and the remainder
} would state both... but they're more confused than you are, and won't
} notice that I've locked the doors on the gym.
}
} Natural Selection, like homeostatis, isn't a real force but a generic
} idea. You can't observe Natural Selection in action, nor can you
} employ it. When I half-fill the gymnasium with water, it's not Natural
} Selection that drowns the people who can't swim -- that's me with a
} pipewrench.
}
} The survivors who believe the first statement will be treading water
} and saying "ha! They're dead, I'm alive, that proves that people who
} can swim are more deserving of surviving!" The survivors who believe
} the second statement will be treading water and saying "not
} necessarily; we're not out of this mess yet, so just swimming isn't
} enough to prove we're fit to survive." At this point the snipers pop
} out and shoot anyone who's been talking out loud.
}
} Those who believed in both statements at the same time, without
} bothering with the contradiction, were silently reconsidering their
} position: how can a casual relationship between fitness and survival
} operate in both directions? But, humans are fascinating in their
} ability to believe many things at once, intentionally ignorant of any
} overlap or contradictions. For these silent contemplators, I release
} the sharks into the water.
}
} Ah, but with one's last dying breath, a shark-hunting Natural Selection
} philosopher might say "ah, the sharks were the most fit to survive, as
} we believers in Natural Selection are drowned, shot, and torn to shreds
} by the blood-frenzied sharks, but the sharks are still swimming. Well,
} if that last philosopher manages to keep body and spirit together just
} a little longer, I'll run 20,000 volts through the flooded gymnasium,
} stunning the sharks enough to asphyxiate them all just to prove my
} point.
}
} My point being: Natural Selection doesn't exist. Those who survive,
} survive. Those who don't, don't. It's up to each creature to survive
} and perpetuate their genotype, and staying away from gymnasiums filled
} with philosophers is a step in the right direction.
}
} You owe the Oracle a copy of Machiavelli's "The Prince."
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