"Of what observation, hypothesis, and verified prediction are the following statements?"
"Cordially,"
Is it perpetually your purpose to answer a question with a question?
Incidentally, those statements appear to come from the sixth chapter of Origin of Species, wherein Darwin himself points out places where his theory could be shown to be weak. However, even with such hints, the theory has held up well.
Even so, this statement in particular should warm your cockles:
"If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection."For clearly there are indeed countless examples of evolution for mutual benefit in the complex ecologies of tropical rainforests. Of course, "mutual benefit" and "exclusive good" are not identical concepts.
I asked the question and posted excerpts of various Darwin writings so that you might see that the strange juxtaposition of metaphysical speculation and negative theology that Darwin posited as confirmation (or potential refutation) of his theory does not meet your stated criteria of what constitutes scientific enterprise.
Darwin's whole program was to exclude teleology from science. By "Natural selection", he meant entirely natural processes, unguided and without purpose or design. That is why his suppositions and speculations often amounted to nothing more than, ""God wouldn't have done it that way so natural selection must be true." As illustrated by:
"If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection."For clearly there are indeed countless examples of evolution for mutual benefit in the complex ecologies of tropical rainforests. Of course, "mutual benefit" and "exclusive good" are not identical concepts.
The irony, though, being that "mutual benefit", and "exclusive good", are not scientific statements, are not derived from science, and do not comport with the presuppositions of evolution and natural selection.
Cordially,