▪︎Evolution, Continuity, and the Modern Selection Mechanism > Recent molecular findings — including RNA systems approaching self-replication — do not redefine evolution. > They refine our understanding of how continuity first became possible. ▪︎This distinction matters. I. The Foundational Layer: Scientific Certainty The principle that life shares common ancestry stands at the level of established scientific consensus — comparable to the Earth's sphericity or planetary motion. This is not ideological territory. It is evidentiary terrain. > What remains under active research is not whether evolution occurred, but how specific mechanisms operate and interact across scales. II. Evolution Is Not Optimal Design Evolutionary outcomes are neither pristine nor intentional in design. They