Śyāmasundara: Darwin is the originator of the doctrine of natural selection, or survival of the fittest. That means that in the course of adapting to the environment one type of animal will develop in a particular way which is best suited for that environment, and he will pass on his superior qualities to his offspring so that that particular species will survive, whereas another, which is not so suitable to that environment, will die out. This is called natural selection. Nature selects different species that can best survive.
Prabhupāda: So what is his explanation of the nature?
Śyāmasundara: Nature is a combination of physical forces in the universe.
Prabhupāda: What does he say about nature?
Śyāmasundara: Nature?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Śyāmasundara: Well, nature is a... All phenomenon can be explained by means of physical laws.
Prabhupāda: Who made these physical laws?
Śyāmasundara: He is not so much concerned with...
Prabhupāda: Why is he not concerned? If he is putting some theory for understanding, why he is not concerned with some primary principles?
Śyāmasundara: He says that we cannot be certain how everything began.
Prabhupāda: Then how he is certain that this natural circumstance is favorable? How he is making certain?
Śyāmasundara: He made many, many tests; he has much evidence...
Prabhupāda: What is that evidence?
Śyāmasundara: ...to show that animals adapt to their environments, just like if you...
Prabhupāda: Why he takes animals first? Why not others?
Śyāmasundara: Animals, trees, plants, insects, men, he examines all the different varieties. For instance if you put a certain animal in a cold climate, he will develop hair to protect his body against the cold, and he will pass on this characteristic to his sons.
Prabhupāda: So why...? The people in Greenland, do they develop hair?
Śyāmasundara: They don't have so much hair, but they develop very fatty tissues. Their eyes are slitted so there is not so much snow and bright light...
Prabhupāda: Then development of hair is not only the existent; there are other many conditions. You cannot say that development of hair is due to the condition as he says, natural condition. That is not a fixed-up...
Śyāmasundara: I was just using that as an example of how a species can adapt to its environment.
Prabhupāda: The question is that this development of body, is there any plan that this body should exist in certain condition of nature, and therefore he must have these equipments, either you say, tissues or veins or hair? Who has made these arrangements? That is the question.
Śyāmasundara: His answer to that is chance variation.
Prabhupāda: That is nonsense. There is no such chance. If he says chance, that means he is a nonsense.