[Keith]

To any mods reading this: You might want to spin off this part of the thread.

Originally Posted by Erki

Firstly, I'm not very interested in Subjective Reality and I don't believe in it.
I don't know. Maybe I'm half-believing in a "living" Universe - one that is constantly moving and flowing and evolving and most importantly, caring.

The interesting thing about beliefs is that they're adaptive (as Steve so effectively illustrates!). Whether that's true or not, there's benefit in believing it - hence the ongoing popularity of religion.

Originally Posted by Erki

I'm not a big fan of evolution. It seems very crude to me. And how can random mutations be a "progress" anyway? More like a series of lucky accidents.

That little paragraph opens a fairly complex can of worms. In summary:

Yes, evolution is very crude (or simple and elegant as I prefer to think ). It's composed of two elements:
1. Evolution - which defined most broadly just means genetic change in a species over time, be it from mutation or (more commonly) from genetic combinations of different parents. Nature 'rolls the dice' with every individual that is born.
2. Natural Selection aka "survival of the fittest". "Fittest" is a bit of a misleading term. Essentially the term boils down to "the individuals who are most suited to survive is likeliest to survive". So on average, the "fittest" survive and breed and their children inherit the 'proven' genetics (with random variation, of course).

So it is a 'series of lucky accidents' but one that are filtered for by a cyclic natural process. It's pretty easy to see how a randomly generated evolutionary advantage could quickly spread to most of the population within generations.

Note that "Fittest" doesn't mean biggest and baddest - it means whatever works best. eg. In a food-scarce environment it might means scrawniest (and thus needing less food).

"Progress" is a human concept and it assumes that you're going somewhere in particular. Evolution doesn't have a particular goal or destination in mind, it just keeps adapting to the environment (which includes other species, BTW). Species often evolve that are supremely suited to their environment only to be superceded by another species when that environment changes. There is no "top rung of the evolutionary ladder", it's all constantly shifting.

My ability to explain all this stuff is limited. If you're interested this site gives a good coverage of the topic. It's focussed on rebutting evolutionist attacks on evolution so it covers potentially misleading facets of the issue in detail.

Originally Posted by Erki

But sayings like "life just isn't fair, get used to it" I just cannot stomach, for whatever reason that is.

I should clarify: Life isn't intrinisically fair. However, fairness is a value that is important to we humans and we can certainly work to implement it. We just shouldn't expect nature to abide by it.