Convoluted human evolution: H. naledi ; recent (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 10, 2017, 18:25 (2754 days ago) @ dhw
edited by David Turell, Wednesday, May 10, 2017, 19:25

dhw: The “hands off approach” which you “suspected” has to entail at least a degree of control being sacrificed, which in turn requires an autonomous inventive intelligence which he can dabble with (= hands on) if he wants to. Now, however, under “Explaining natural wonders” we have the following:

dhw: Why are you so afraid to acknowledge the POSSIBILITY that he enabled organisms to do their own designing (though with the option of dabbling when he felt like it)?
DAVID: Not 'afraid'. God is in charge no matter how it happened. 3.8 billion year program or dabbling remain the only possibilities.

dhw: “No matter how it happened”, but it can only have happened your way, and the “hands off” approach disappears. In that case do please give us your new answer to my original question and comment:
“…if he knew that homo sapiens (his apparent purpose) would survive, he must have fixed it that way, so what do you think was the point of his organizing the competition? If he didn't know, he was not “in full control” (your theory, not mine).”

My above comment indicates no change in my position that God is in charge. You are raising the issue of why so many hominin forms. I don't know any answers, since we do not have DNA from all of them to compare, and see how they might interrelate, as we do with Denisovans, Neanderthals, etc. As for competition it doesn't seem that any of the other earlier forms could stand up to sapiens once they appeared. That looks like God's intent from the beginning. We might suppose that the bush of earlier forms were somewhat experimental. We are then back to 'process evolution' with God experimenting and dabbling on the way to His goal. We have discussed this possibility before. God's powers may require that He evolve what He wants: the universe, Earth's characteristics, life, humans. See this article which supports the idea that naledi is a dead end:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-evidence-of-mysterious-homo-naledi-raise...

"Faith also does not buy the argument H. naledi could have given rise to H. sapiens. “If the dates are correct, then H. naledi is a classic example of an evolutionary dead end,” he asserts, noting the similarities to the miniature human “hobbit” species Homo floresiensis that lived on the Indonesian island of Flores until around 50,000 years ago. “[H. naledi] couldn’t possibly have given rise to living human populations today.'”

I would remind you, as I respond to your questions and objections that I am willing to offer possibilities about God, but I'm sure you understand every guess may vary, as you note, but each revolves about the central premise that God is always in charge.