Evolution: a different view (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, May 01, 2015, 02:49 (3494 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I don't see convergence or exaptation as complete answers but as part of the answer. The strange bush can be explained by organisms having the ability to work out their own responses to changing environments. Convergence just means different organisms find the same solutions,-I agree so far, which is why I accept the idea of an IM.-> dhw: exaptations would also be inventive adjustments to existing organs.-Exaptation's appear thousands to hundred of thousand years before any use is found for them. That is a key issue in the idea of pre-planning. -> dhw: I wonder what the evolutionary pressure/reason was for the 99% of extinct species, for the whale, for the weaverbird, and for the duck-billed platypus.-I don't know and I don't think it matters-> dhw: The existence and survival of whales is proof enough that whatever transformations took place were beneficial. On the understanding that all evolutionary change is triggered by the need to survive or the aim to improve, this only becomes a problem if you try to fit it in with your anthropocentrism.-It is a problem for me. Whales chose a very complex way to survive, a very difficult one to invent, if you follow all the changes from a land animal. I frankly see no logic in making survival so complex. That is why I think God did it with whales. I doubt they did it on their own. Maybe it was for Jonah.