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This is my reply to Dr. R:

Hello Dr. R******, thank you for your comments concerning the definition of the word "evolution".

You are right to question the usage of the word "evolution". This word is commonly misused and misunderstood.

On the http://www.missiontoamerica.org/secular_humanism/our-purpose.html page I was using the word "evolution" as it is commonly used - to mean life arising from non-life and slowly changing, to become more complex over a long period of time, with the end result being us. The dictionary definition is more general, but it encompasses this definition.

You rightly point out that success, or survival, is defined as reproductive success. For example, rabbits do not have great physical strength, but they are highly "successful" because they reproduce prolifically.

However, the point of the web page was not to discuss the mechanism for evolutionary success. The purpose is to show that life based on evolution -- reproductive success -- is meaningless.

Whether or not the sun expands to swallow the earth is a meaningless statement, as the predicted time frame is very far in the future. Anyone reading this will be long dead, and thus it does not influence people's decisions about how they live their lives today.

My question to you is: if life (and thus us) was created by the random interaction of non-living chemicals, and when we die we return to being random non-living chemicals, what's the point? We were created in a random process and we return to randomness. In the period between those two random conditions, why should I not do whatever I want to do?

For example, why should I not try to impregnate as many women as possible? That would improve my reproductive success. Why should I care how it affects anyone else?

The Bible tells us that we were created in the image of God. We are not here as a result of purposeless random processes.