Is our solar system weird? The current odds (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, July 14, 2016, 19:01 (3053 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: As always, we have the two separate issues: 1) how does evolution work? 2) How did life and the evolutionary mechanism, whatever it may be, come into being? As regards 1), the wild proliferation is logically explained by an autonomous inventive mechanism that enables creatures to adapt to and exploit the vast range of environmental conditions. You prefer a 3.8-billion-year computer programme plus dabbling. As regards 2) it requires a colossal leap of faith to believe that chance could create life and the evolutionary mechanism - just as it requires a colossal leap of faith to believe that an almighty, universe-creating, universe-encompassing mind could simply exist without a source. - I would remind you the start of life and evolution are an inseparable continuum, so you are raising two questions in one continuous process. The ability to evolve must be coded into the beginning. I would also remind there must be a first cause. There has never been a true nothing.