Darwinism is based on two fundamental tenets:

1. Survival of the fittest
2. Variation in a population is the result of random genetic mutations

The current version is better called neo-Darwinism because Darwin did not know about genes.

As Karl Popper pointed out, tenet (1) is really a tautology, not however in the sense that it is trivially true, but in the sense that it is necessarily true. That it is a tautology is demonstrated by its application to other areas; it is not necessarily limited to biology. It can lead to fruitful lines of thinking, for example, in game theory, when it is understood not merely as the survival advantage of different traits, but moreover as the survival advantage of particular strategies of behaviour. Thus, different strategies can be simulated by computer software and the results analyzed.

The second tenet is more problematic.

• It assumes that the variety of life forms that now exist, or have existed, derive from some primal life form, the “Eve” of science.
• It assumes that random mutations are cumulatively creative.
• And finally it assumes that a life form is fully defined and determined by its genetic code.

None of these assumptions is intuitively obvious. Nor have they been demonstrated.