Does evolution have a purpose? (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, October 25, 2014, 01:12 (3681 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained


> > David: Yes, I understand that. But evolution is a sequience of events, segments or stages
> 
> Tony: The difference is that in evolution, the steps are not discreet. They transition across the lines of 'according to their kind'. Now, as a challenge for you, if God created things in stages, as the Bible says he did, wouldn't that actually give the 'illusion' of evolution while simultaneously explaining the gaps in the fossil record AND the fact that we do not see any further crossing of species boundaries continuing today?-You are absolutely correct. In my view, we are looking at the same thing: how life changed from simple, although the first cells were anything but simple, to highly complex humans. But each of us is approaching it slightlty differently from our individual viewpoints. I don't mind the word evolution to describe it. Any process that takes something that is relatively simple and by fits and starts, with gaps or smoothly, and develops it to a more complex arrangement, as has happened with living forms, is by definition a form of an evolutionary process. -The huge gap at the Cambrian juncture demands the recognition that intellectual planning had to have happened. The whale series I like to refer to is another example of extreme changes with each step in the process requiring new information and new planning.-I know the word 'evolution' conjures up Darwin and chance process. My term 'theistic evolution' is simply saying that God planned it all and guided it all thoughout 3.6 or so billion years. I'm not a deist. I can't imagine God set this up and left, or sits back and simply watches. My debate with dhw is simply a way of my working out the role for epigenetic mechanisms, which are certainly present in organisms, and allow for necessary adaptation without huge unexplained gaps. God's actions explain the gaps. He has given organisms the way to work out necessary modifications on their own.-I don't think there has been enough time in the past 200 years to see new species, but as I suspect, you believe the process is over. We humans are here and I doubt we will change to any important degree.