More Denton: Reply to David (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, July 22, 2015, 21:30 (3412 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Check your logic. What is happening is the gap is sharper. What is before is filled with simplicity, and what is after is many new complex Cambrian specimens with coordinated complex organ systems. 
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> dhw: Fair comment. We just have a different starting point. Mine is that the more gaps there are, the less complete is the record. Yours is that the more we find (= a more complete record), the wider the gaps.-Not wider! When I said sharper I meant more delineated. The contrast between the pre-Cambrian and the Cambrian continues to become greater. This is really the main gap to discuss. There is no good reason foundso far for the giant leap in complexity. 
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> DAVID: That takes planning, not shotgun attemps at improvement.
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> dhw: Why shotgun? We know that cell communities are capable of changing their structure in order to adapt to specific changes in the environment. There is nothing shotgun in such procedures.-Shotgun is a good word. In your method cells make blind attempts at improvements by changes, and seeing what survives in natural competition. The giant changes in the Cambrian defy your theory to work.-> 
> dhw: The Cambrian illustrates why gradualism doesn't work. Exquisite planning applies to all organs, organisms, and Nature's Wonders. However, your assumption seems to be that only God and humans are capable of exquisite planning. 
> DAVID: Pipe dream. Frankly, you don't understand biologic complexity at the basic physiologic levels.
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> dhw:Since your only alternative is divine preprogramming and/or dabbling, you will have to direct the same criticism at any biologist who doesn't believe in God.-Fair enough. They are blind to reason, in my view.
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> DAVID: A huge 'perhaps'. You have jumped on one very specialized set of cells and assume every cell can do this. They can't because they are not built that way.
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> dhw: It is not an assumption but a hypothesis, and it is not applied to every cell. In any cell community, as in any other community you can think of, some cells will organize and others will be organized.-A very hopeful hypothesis. We know of no mechanism as to how they organize and cooperate which each other, except biochemical reactions and methylation of DNA for minor response adaptations.
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> dhw: I am not disputing that evolution creates more complexity, or that humans are in certain respects more complex than other organisms.-"In certain respects?" We are vastly more complex in physical and mental abilities. -> dhw: However, the main thrust of my comment was that there is a vast difference between humans as the most complex organisms and humans as God's purpose for creating the universe. I am delighted to see you at last abandoning the second claim and focusing all your attention on the first.-I don't see the difference. If the humans are so much more complex, why not view them as the pinnacle of evolution?