More about how evolution works: look at the video (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, October 19, 2015, 11:21 (3109 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: [...] This means that although energy is everywhere, intelligence is indeed divided up precisely as you describe: in zillions of entities......but it dispenses with the idea of a single intelligence designing and manipulating the universe and everything in it.
DAVID: A neat maneuver of deceptive thought. Yes, intelligence is everywhere, in the intelligent information in living organisms' cells to the intelligence in myriad brains of various types from C. elegans to humans. And you want it to just sort of evolve 'inexplicably'. That means you can't explain it, but it gets rid of the problem of God. More meat please. See my Romansh/ Ed Fesser entry of today. By the way he originated as an atheist.-What do you mean “it gets rid of the problem of God”? God is not the default position. You want an inexplicable intelligence called God to just sort of be there - “that means you can't explain it, but it gets rid of the problem” of how life and intelligence arose.-I agree with Fesser. I use similar arguments in my own “brief guide”. And I am an agnostic.-dhw: You continue to ignore the fact that both hypotheses are inexplicable. Your guiding hand or mind - energy always BEING aware of itself - is every bit as inexplicable as my inorganic materials BECOMING aware of themselves.
DAVID: There has to be a first cause with planning ability. I view the complexity we see and are as impossible without that entity. I view your version of evolving intelligence as totally impossible. From your words, it just happens, no impetus. I see only force and direction, which must have a source.-I know your views, and I do not reject them because I do not have an answer to the question of how earthly life and intelligence came to be. But you do not have an answer to the question of how your God's life and intelligence came to be. You simply substitute one mystery for another, as if that solved the problem. “First cause” is either intelligent energy or energy in which intelligence evolved. Whichever hypothesis you opt for requires a large dose of irrational faith. Under “Cosmological philosophy”, we had the following exchange:
 
dhw: “Static truths” would fit in with your idea of an eternal know-it-all intelligence creating the laws of nature, whereas “emerging behaviours that unfold and take hold as time elapses” clearly suggests evolution without prior planning. But he doesn't commit himself here either.-David's comment [re the article we were discussing]: Such clear thinking!
dhw: Yes indeed. It's only faith that can dispense with clear thinking.
DAVID: Faith totally clears up the mystery, solves all.-Precisely. You can have faith in an inexplicable power called God, or you can have faith in an inexplicable evolution of intelligence in matter, and each faith “totally clears up the mystery”.