More about how evolution works: look at the video (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 03, 2015, 08:37 (3087 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You seem yet again to have forgotten that your first cause is inexplicably intelligent energy, and my alternative is energy that inexplicably evolved its intelligence(s).
DAVID: Inexplicable is a wonderful word. At least I look for reasonable explanations. Accept God and everything fits.-You are simply saying that I should accept an unknown power of unknown origin and of unknown nature as a “reasonable explanation”. Accept a lucky combination in an infinite number of combinations, and everything fits. I do not see either hypothesis as reasonable.-dhw: The fact that bacteria have survived but not evolved proves my point that innovation need not be a matter of survival, and would therefore not demand success “at first try”.
DAVID: Your comment does not explain the gaps in complexity which in the Cambrian is enormous.-As I commented at the end, no one has an explanation. That does not invalidate my point.-dhw: It makes no difference: the soft tissue they do find will still be fully formed. 
DAVID: You miss my point. The excuse for gaps is that soft tissue won't fossilize, but it does and it doesn't close the gaps.-You miss my point. No one has an explanation for the gaps, regardless of whether the fossils are bones or soft tissue.-dhw: My point above is that functioning inventions can be continually improved on by intelligent “minds”, and each improvement will be an organ in itself, not an intermediate form. You are quick to dismiss this as a pipe dream... 
DAVID: Absolutely a PD. Didn't you ever hear of trial and error? That is how Edison made most of his inventions. Darwin's theory is the same thing. In your view first life arrived and began thinking how to make itself better. And survives to this day without change, so change was not required.-If bacteria are individual, sentient, cognitive, intelligent beings, as some eminent scientists claim, then some will follow the same old routine but others will explore new possibilities, especially when they combine. Multicellularity is the key to innovation, and innovation - as I keep saying - is not a matter of survival but of improvement. Improvement is not “required”, but is the product of intelligent “minds”.
 
dhw: No one has an explanation for the Cambrian, or for life, or for consciousness, and all the hypotheses so far are “pipe dreams”. Not a bad reason for agnosticism.
DAVID: No-nothingism.-Or rather know-nothingism. Why pretend you know something you can't possibly know? That is why you have to resort to faith.