Evolution v Creationism: guided evolution? dhw? (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, April 29, 2015, 18:19 (3278 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: You look for the rational answer to the problem of the whale. You don't know it, but when I offer a rational answer, I'm told not to look for rational answers.-You are playing with just-so Darwinian gamesmanship like they do. What the whales did is totally unexplained, if one thinks that natural selection is a way to find improvements. The whales completely complicated their life's struggle for no good reason I can see.-> dhw: As for the grip story, I'm deeply, deeply sceptical. I really don't think for one minute that our ancestors suddenly found they had a new grip but didn't know what to do with it. It seems far more likely to me that the grip developed because our ancestors needed it for one purpose or another. I suspect that the same applies to all so-called exaptations.-The word was invented by Ian Tattersall, a world-renowned paleontologist, who was surprised by how many are in evidence.. Until you have reviewed a group of them, as I have, don't be so quick to poo-poo the idea. I recently mentioned the descent of the larynx, long before language. "I suspect" suggests you don't know the subject.-> dhw:An organ develops for a particular use, and then as conditions change, the organisms adapt the existing organs for other uses. Fins becoming legs, for instance. Why such natural adaptations should have required preplanning 3.7 billion years ago is not obvious to me at all. Nor can I see why your God would dabble to create a grip his darlings didn't need at the time. -As I've noted, good pre-planning.
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> DAVID: I believe I was hired on to combat your stance, and make your picket fence a very uneasy position.
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> The lady who invited you did a great job! And I am happy to award you the dhw Medal for Persistent Picket-Pocking.-I've built many a ranch fence. I'm building one around your pre-conceived agnostic ideas to gradually exclude you from them.