Extinctions: Massive eruptions (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, August 26, 2016, 11:54 (3011 days ago) @ David Turell

David's comment: This study shows the balance of nature is so important and current environment is part of that balance. Most extinctions are bad luck, described in previous entries.-dhw: Balance of nature simply means relations between living organisms and their environment. If the environment goes bust, the organisms go bust. And if extinctions are bad luck, it makes nonsense of the whole concept of divine planning and preprogramming. Your God carefully creates all these wonderful creatures, and then a bit of bad luck kills 99% of them! The whole process reeks of chance, and the only theistic explanation I can see is that this is how your God wanted it. In other words, he created all the conditions that would lead to an unpredictable ebb and flow of comings and goings (though he could do the occasional dabble if he felt like it). If you disagree, please give me an alternative theistic explanation for what you call “bad luck”.-DAVID: We don't know if the Chicxulub asteroid was God's doing or not. The 'bad luck' quote is in the title of David Raup's highly regarded book. What seems to be true is that with each giant extinction, evolution advanced to more complex forms. If God is at work the process is working. Humans are here. Not at all unpredictable.-You obviously share Raup's view that most extinctions are bad luck, since you have stated it yourself. Bad luck and good luck are synonymous with chance. This means your God either couldn't or didn't want to control the environment, except for the occasional dabble. And if he couldn't or didn't control the environment, “most” of the consequences would also have been unpredictable (part of the great entertainment, perhaps). As for humans, leaving aside the question of who or what would have been capable of making predictions, I thought your whole “difference” campaign was based on your belief that they were NOT predictable, and it needed some really special dabbling from your God to produce them.