causation (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, June 09, 2014, 18:55 (3820 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Once the mechanism is in place, as you have said but perhaps now wish you had not said, "the organism guides its own destiny". The complexity arises from organisms deliberately adapting or innovating in accordance with changes in the environment. The changes in the environment may come about by chance (or do you think your God planned those as well?), but the adaptations and innovations do not. In that sense, evolution does not progress by chance. ... But perhaps you would explain what YOU meant by "guides its own destiny".-To stop us going round and round, first let me modify 'guides its own destiny' to add the word 'partially'. The organisms in which we have seen this certainly have a degree of adaptability, but obviously not complete control. And you are right, that does advance complexity. Does god dabble with the environment (?), I can't possibly know, but the Chicxulub crator tells us the dinosaurs were stopped in thier tracks. And that allowed evolution to progress to us. Chance or God, flip a coin.-As for epigenetic mechanisms, yes they are in place. They add a massive degree of complexity to the genome as Shapiro demonstrates, and to my way of thinking, it implies purpose to make sure that evolution develops toward human complexity.