Innovation and Speciation: pre-planning (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, May 29, 2014, 17:07 (3830 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: There are vast numbers of giant leaps between bacteria and us. Are you saying that each one was pre-planned for the sake of producing humans? I've allowed for purpose in 2) and 3), which seem to me to fit in better with the higgledy-piggledy bush of evolutionary comings and goings than "antedating the need" and "pre-planning". May I ask why you think the latter is a more likely alternative?-DAVID: I was not clear. I don't see how there can be a chosen method. You want exactitude and I don't have it. I simply see purpose in humans appearing, and evolution was obviously used. That is as far as I can go, except that chance is not an answer, so there had to be directionality by some method within the evolutionary process. This questioning shows the background of your agnosticism. You want exactness and such proofs don't exist. I am distilling odds in my head, not Matt's approved method.-This is an interesting angle, because I see our discussion the opposite way! I objected to two of your statements because they were too precise for me: namely, that the sea anemone's nervous system "antedated need" and was "pre-planned". In other words, your God already intended to produce humans, and the sea anemone's nervous system was merely a stepping-stone towards us, a billion years later. The ramifications of your own directionality theory include God's pre-planning of every innovation leading to humans, and it provides no explanation for the vast scale and range of organisms that have come and gone. I've offered different scenarios, which include two that allow for your God, his "purpose", and the higgledy-piggledy bush. I don't expect proof (which I know does not exist), but am simply asking why you prefer your very exact "antedating" and "pre-planning" interpretation of evolution to other equally "purposeful" but less restricted alternatives.