Remember there is an error rate of... (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, March 15, 2015, 19:55 (3541 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by dhw, Sunday, March 15, 2015, 20:10

dhw: I know how reluctant you are to contradict anyone who says nasty things about Darwinian evolution, but do you agree with him that evolution through innovation in existing organisms (even if preprogrammed by your God) could not have happened because of destabilization?-You have responded with your usual detailed account of why life could only have originated by design, but since my focus is on how evolution itself might work, and since the author insists it couldn't have worked at all, I'll accept everything you say and home in on one statement tucked away in your argument: “That is why my thought about evolution is that God guided it. Did He personally create each species or just guided a process He set in motion? I don't know. But it is one or the other.” This is a radical departure from your original stance. Dabbling is one thing, but the personal creation of each species would make you into an Old Earth Creationist and not a theistic evolutionist. Your dilemma seems to be deepening as our discussions continue.
 
Because of this I took a quick look at what you said about Creationism in your book The Atheist Delusion, and to my delight (I'd forgotten it) found the following:
“I am not arguing, however, that God engineered all these intricate processes separately (Dawkins loves to equate design with biblical Creationism, so that he can ignore all other aspects of the argument.) My point is that living organisms have been provided with mechanisms that enable them to adapt and invent. It is the astonishing versatility of these mechanisms that makes chance so unlikely a provider.”-So you actually got there before me: the autonomous inventive mechanism (theistic version). Sounds good to me!