Different in degree or kind (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, December 21, 2013, 17:54 (3990 days ago) @ dhw


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> dhw: There is no contradiction here, except that the distinction between convergent and parallel evolution is sometimes blurred (unrelated desert plants on different continents often have similar forms of leaf, and that is also called convergence).-Yees, but that is a softer interpretation.-> dhw; If organisms respond to similar environmental conditions with six different types of eyes, I would suggest that this points to individual responses rather than a universal programme handed down from the first cells.-That is your individual interpretation. Conway Morris would disagree.-> 
> dhw: The expression is normally used in a legal context, where the quest is for some kind of objective truth, and so of course that is the impression arising from your claim ... especially when you say it's based on science, which is supposed to be our most objective approach to truth. -God and his processes are not susceptable to absolute truth, which is why Adler chose his definition.-
> dhw: I am all in favour of the view that evolution is a history of experimentation. That is why, in my opinion, your hypothesis that all innovations were preprogrammed in the very first cells (apart from when God dabbled) makes your reasoning fall out of place.-What I have said is that God made life very inventive which is why we see the bush and convergence (C-M definition). Life has some programs, apparently, to allow it inventive variations. He did not program every variation in evolution.-> dhw: Experimentation and what you call "a confusing bush of organisms" do not fit in with the precise planning advocated by your anthropocentric view of evolution, or with your insistence that cells and cell communities are mere automatons obeying your God's pre-given instructions. You can't have it both ways.-Not both ways if you follow my reasoning.I have never said that it was precise planning. We have a bush of life and a bush of hominins. But the bush of hominins, which appears for no good reason in challenges of nature provids me evidence for a final thrust to humans, planned from the beginning. I have no idea why God chose such a strange way of getting there, except the 'balance of nature' concept where if you disturb it, bad things happen, i.e., rabbits in Australia.