Darwin & Wallace (Evolution)

by David Turell , Monday, October 05, 2015, 14:05 (3120 days ago) @ dhw
edited by David Turell, Monday, October 05, 2015, 14:17


> dhw: The challenges of nature do not require the weaverbird's nest either,-And how do you know this?-> dhw: If the nest is not relevant to the production of humans, might it not mean that your God did indeed give organisms the wherewithal to do their own designing?-Again you avoid my contention that balance in nature is critical. Everyone has to eat. Ask Australians about their imbalance! I think the nest may well be relevant on that basis. And look at this article about invasive species messing things up:-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151003135017.htm-"Goldenrod, Himalayan balsam, Chinese windmill palm: three plants, one problem. All are native to continents other than Europe, but were introduced to Switzerland as garden or ornamental plants. At some point they "escaped" into the wild, where they now threaten the native flora.-"This phenomenon isn't limited to Switzerland: biological invasions happen on every continent every day. A major driver of this is global trade, which is increasingly shifting to the internet and being conducted on auction platforms like eBay. As a result, one click is all it takes to spread potentially invasive plants from continent to continent -- and unintentionally encouraging biological invasions."-> dhw: If so, and you add that to your view that God did not control the environment, evolution will begin to look more and more like a free-for-all than the planned or “guided” process you have made it out to be.-I've only said that I don't know if God controls the environment or asteroids. I have no way of knowing. -> 
> dhw: Loneliness, then? Need for love? I'm not sure how the conversation (though we can hardly converse with him as equals) is meant to work when according to you he deliberately keeps himself hidden, but it is true that many people think they are in contact with him.-Like your boredom approach, my invented suggestion only points out the silliness of trying to read God's mind, which silliness you are now portraying! See your statement below.-> dhw: The consequences of this assumed contact vary from comfort and good deeds to mass murder, but that may be attributed to our autonomous intelligence. The dichotomy is strangely reflected in Nature, where at even the lowest levels of life we find a mixture of cooperation and competition, construction and destruction, survival and extinction...But you would have us believe that humans are different: only humans have the autonomous intelligence to pursue these choices as they wish, whereas God “guides” other organisms to go one way or the other.-I've never said the more sentient organisms don't have freedom of action.