Different in degree or kind: Sapiens begin brain use (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, October 30, 2016, 12:13 (2733 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Extinction was due to “bad luck”, because organisms were “inadequate for the stress” of accidental environmental changes, and now we come full circle to God’s control of the environment with extinction being part of the great plan.
DAVID: I remind you I am using Raup's terms. These animals were perfectly adequate until a new stress did them in. It is your point, and I agree it, that new circumstances engender new advances in evolution.

Thank you.

DAVID: I get the implication in your statements that you are inferring God made inadequate animals. He did not. They were adequate before the new changes that caused their demise.

It was YOUR argument that the organisms were “inadequate for the stress” of accidental environmental changes! Yes of course they were adequate until they proved inadequate. Your dilemma is whether your God created the new environmental changes - in which case extinction was not “bad luck” - or the environmental changes were the result of chance, in which case God relied on luck to allow evolution to progress the way he wanted it to. You cannot have meticulous planning that relies on luck, but either way (deliberately or accidentally) you are left with your God having designed organisms that were, as you so rightly put it, “inadequate for the stress”.