The Mechanistic Point Of View Of Random Mutations And Natural Selection

Davies & Gribbin (1992: 279):

According to the mechanistic point of view, living organisms are just machines, albeit complicated and wonderful machines. The evolution of life on Earth is likewise seen as a mechanistic affair, but a creative element is introduced through random variations. Most biologists accept that random mutations and natural selection alone can satisfactorily account for the form of all living organisms, once life had got started.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, this mechanistic point of view is the reconstrual of Nature in terms of human technology.

To be clear, chemical mutations are only random with respect to biological advantage. They come about though non-random chemical processes.

Given the evolutionary emergence of biological chemistry from non-biological chemistry, some form of chemical variation and selection, before "life had got started", cannot be ruled out.