Different in degree or kind: our hands (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, March 17, 2016, 13:18 (3173 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Modifications are still appearing, in the form of adaptations. It is innovations that are not appearing. We know from adaptations that the cell communities are able to make changes to themselves, which is the only clue we have as to how the process of innovation might work. Your original comment relates to the fact that currently we can't see the process in operation, and I merely pointed out that the same criticism applies to all the hypotheses. I trust you will drop that line of argument now. - DAVID: Dropped. - Thank you. - DAVID: The minor modifications that appear now are not equal to the major jumps, punctuated equilibrium or saltations that have been the major contributors to evolution in the past. - That is why I distinguish between adaptation and innovation.
 
DAVID: Those are still unexplained unless God is invoked. - Invoking God is simply saying that some unknown intelligence caused innovations in an unknown way. Still a fair amount of explaining to do!