[js1138]

In fact, natural selection seems to be such an adaptable concept there is no question it won't answer...

You assume that natural selection just walked in without a challenge.

The historic fact is that most biologists that accepted evolution prior to 1940 did not accept natural selection. There are at least half a dozen contenders for the mechanism of evolution, including Lamarkianism and ID. Natural selection is currently at the forefront because it is the only mechanism with adequate supporting evidence.

[Taliesan]

I have no quibble with natural selection being the current favorite mechanism for biological evolution, if that is what the scientists think. I'm not a scientist, nor do i play one on the internet. The part that puzzles me is the tendency for some scientists to speculate on how natural selection explains, say, a preference for blondes, or Methodism.

When natural selection can explain anything no matter what it might be, it is logically indistinct from creationism. It just has an omnipotent agent with no personality or name. I'm not sure how that makes Occam any happier.