Proving common descent (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, November 17, 2012, 12:23 (4366 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw (re God and evolution): 
1) He then left it to evolve randomly in whatever directions. This flexibility resulted in billions of different species, some of which died out, some of which have survived. Eventually we evolved from one particular line of these randomly evolved species.
2) He occasionally interfered in order to push evolution in the particular direction he wanted it to go, i.e. towards humanity.
3) He did not have any particular plan in mind, but occasionally interfered in order to experiment.
These scenarios all fit in with the course of evolution as we (think we) know it, but only (2) involves a particular goal, and even that entails failures in the initial programme. Your "guided the creation of life" is too vague for me. Do you stand by preprogramming for humans from the very beginning, or are you prepared to consider any of these three alternatives?-DAVID: Certainly not (3). Perhaps (1) or (2), but I think evolution had initial guidelines to carry it along. The Cambrian might be a point where God stepped in. Again origin of life is a miracle, Cambrian may well be, and humans with consciousness are a miracle, as I view it.-I'll go along with life and consciousness being miracles, so long as the word is not restricted to its supernatural associations. (I used it myself in the brief guide, and was reprimanded for doing so.) I'm glad you've allowed possible alternatives to the pre-programming option, but actually (1) and (3) both preclude God having a plan to start with, which is the exact opposite of your original preplanning theory. It seems to me inevitable that once we accept common descent, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the vast diversification of species and the illogicality of believing that every single variation and innovation was geared to the production of humans.
 
If I believed in God, I would have no difficulty subscribing to any one of these three options. For the record, my fourth option would be intelligent but unself-conscious energy creating the mechanism for intelligent but unself-conscious life and evolution, culminating in an ever more complex intelligence that eventually becomes aware of itself.