Contingent evolution: what pushes it? (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, November 02, 2014, 15:07 (3674 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Dhw: Animals need a certain amount of oxygen, so it's not unreasonable to suppose that until oxygen was present in the right quantities, animal life could not be sustained. You may impose your own view that your God decided to change the Earth's atmosphere so that he could make new organisms, or he saw that the new atmosphere could allow for new forms of life so he dabbled. That's up to you. But the article itself merely associates the rise of animal life with a possible change in the atmosphere. Perfectly logical.-TONY: Because evolution claims that given enough time and just perfect conditions random chance could create the vast variety of life that exists today, then turn around and say that there wasn't enough time and the conditions were not perfect but that it still happened 'just so' by random chance.-Evolution doesn't claim anything. Evolutionists make claims, and you are right that some evolutionists - probably a very large majority - attribute the vast variety of life to chance, but as I keep pointing out to you, the theory is open to other interpretations, which is why the Church is able to accept it. Even David, who is as scathing about chance as you are, believes in theistic evolution. Perhaps it would be useful for you to hear his scientific reasons for believing in common descent as opposed to separate creation. My objection to your comments on the article about oxygen was that you were sneering at research which merely associated the Cambrian with a possible increase in oxygen. Even theistic evolution would require compatibility between organisms and the environment. You claim that the bible encourages scientific research so long as it doesn't take people away from God. You seem to have dismissed evolution because so many evolutionists misuse it as a buttress for their atheism. That is as unscientific as atheists dismissing all arguments for design because so many ID-ers use it as a buttress for their faith in God.