Ah, I see. Picking icons apart doesn’t seem a very productive thing to do, but there we are. Strange metaphor to quote on a Christian site; best to forget it.
Until you pointed it out I hadn’t realized how interesting it was. I’m going to follow up on this.
In Christian terms icons are sacred symbols in the form of religious works of art. So it is appropriate to use the term in the context of evolutionary theory, where it has become a pseudoreligious dogma speaking to what some believe to lie at the ground of existence. I say pseudo because it is not about the Divine or Transcendent, God in other words, but an intellectual elevation of the mundane, the structure of creation, to that elevated status.
Random chemical change and environmental pressures are the pillars of the belief system that sees creation as having moulded itself into the multiplicity of diverse organisms that have appeared on earth through time. While it is blatantly obvious whenever we use sunscreen, put on a lead apron at the dentist’s office, or avoid using solvents such as benzene, that random change at a chemical level is bad, it is held to be the basis for all this wonder around us. As to natural selection, all sorts of efforts are being employed in the Galapagos Islands to fight off its inherent destructive nature. It takes loving care, knowledge and a great deal of effort to create and keep things from falling apart.
To call them flimsy icons communicates these important points about Darwinism.
Interestingly, the approach that presents the theory as a house of cards, fits with the idea of survival of the fittest. Picking away at the icons is what science does. May the best theory win.
But unfortunately, as a pseudo-religion, evolution is considered sacrosanct by its believers.
Evidential selection we can see is a negative process, which does not provide new knowledge in itself but reveals the defects in what has been proposed as a sufficient explanation. What it does do is spur us on to be creative, to think more deeply and search for the truth.
What we find in nature is greater adaptability as we progress from the simplest forms of being (atoms and molecules) to the most complex (we ourselves). In terms of behaviour it goes from simple determined interactions to the free will of causal agents, engaging in relationships with what is other to themselves. While this involves a massive elaboration and transformation of basic material substances, it reflects a creative process whereby different forms of being and ultimately persons were brought into existence by an act of Divine will for a purpose.
. There are healthy obsessions and there are unhealthy obsessions.
I can only get to 
- and that’s on a good day:exclamation:
Please be advised that your chances of receiving the aforementioned birthday invitation have subsequently been reduced to almost zero.
