Evolution

Such questions would be better asked in comments, but the prologue seemed quite clear. I'm a proponent of a very wide definition and understanding of evolution. Evolution is categorically the process by which life came to be as it is now. It explains the organization, structure, design, distribution, functionality and arrangement of all life on this planet. It's not only possible, probable, and likely, it's the only process by which we can get a robust understanding of life on this planet. Evolution is a process by which simple mutation and reproduction serve to create a robust design for life by adding little bits of advantage via random mutation being selected for by non-random processes. Thomas Malthus proposed a novel economics theory which served as a starting point for Darwin when applied, not only to humans, but to all organisms on the planet. Given any organism such as, let's say crickets, if every organism which was to survive did survive and had as many offspring as possible the entire planet would in very short order be completely covered with crickets several feet thick. There must, necessarily, be a struggle for life and success in life and every organism which could exist cannot exist. Predation, failure to find a mate, starvation, defeat by other organisms and other factors must serve to regulate populations. However, there must from time to time be and edge exerted by one of those organisms in the struggle for survival which gives it a leg up, providing an advantage which its brethren lacks, allowing that organism to survive more than its species mates and spread that advantage to all of it's progeny. This must similarly occur at the same time those same natural forces weed out any random flaws in the organisms by making them less fit. Ultimately this produces a non-random improving process, which by it's very nature will produce random variants better suited to its environment without the need for intervention to illicit such improvements. Imagine if you have a thousand dice and you roll them all. What are the chances that you'll get all 6's? 6^1000 You could roll these dice over and over and again until you are dead and even then the odds are astoundingly slim that you'll ever get remotely close on any roll, much less succeed. Now, let's imagine that rather than rerolling all the dice you only rerolled the die with the lowest value. What are the chances that you'll get all 6's? Well, they are about 100% that you eventually get all sixes. In fact, you'll probably be finished rolling those dice in a couple days at most. This is the difference between random chance and evolution, evolution banks the previous successes it had at making better organisms (even if it can't understand or know why that organism is better) and simply tries again and again. Now, it isn't difficult to image that this process might work. In fact, it's hard to imagine that such a process could fail. On top of the fact that it should work from a sheer algorithmic point of view, it also works as a matter of practical fact. We see evolution occurring in the short term and in the long term. We have fossils of lizard-jaws becoming mammal jaws, dinosaurs becoming birds, fish becoming land-walkers, land-walkers becoming whales, and the diaspora of every living creature on this planet radiating out from simple forms to the more adapted and complex forms. We can see the microscopic parasites that we use to defeat with a novel adaptation of fungus have novel adaptations of their own to become immune. We have strains of viruses change and adapt to the human immune system revealing things about ourselves that we didn't even know. We have the little steps of evolution and the big steps of evolution and the many strides in between. Beyond being a process which, by its very nature, should produce organisms of increasing complexity, it's the only viable explanation we have, and the only process for which we have overwhelming bounties of evidence. Evolution is the process by which life adapted to life and to this world. In fact, we use it today to improve many of our own designs, we have evolved better race cars better wi-fi antenna, better processor rules, improved and novel technologies by adapting the process in computer simulator to create a simple fraction of what is possible in the real world given a few billion years. Evolution isn't just a possibility it's a reality.