Convoluted human evolution: a branch is missing (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, August 03, 2017, 10:50 (2670 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: The pattern of evolution is bushiness. But it always showed further complexity as it progressed. It definitely shows a directionality which can be equated to purpose: produce the most complex. And it has. The human brain.

dhw: I am fully aware that the pattern of evolution is bushiness, and that the advance from bacteria to dinosaurs, dodos, the duck-billed platypus and us Davids entails complexity. Why you should think that all of these relate to your God’s single purpose of producing the human brain, as opposed to the purpose of producing bushiness, has been the subject of endless posts between us. If you stop telling us that higgledy-piggledy bushiness is evidence of a single purpose, l will refrain from listing the rest of the contradictions.

DAVID: You are confusing method with purpose. The bushiness is fused with advancing complexity, thus the human brain result, under God's guidance.

Wearing my theist hat, I am challenging the logic behind your assumption that your God’s sole purpose was to create a single species, and he chose to fulfil his purpose by creating a great bush of species. I suggest that if he knew what he was doing, the great bush may have been part of his purpose, i.e. he actually wanted a great bush. And I suggest that the ever changing nature of that bush (including the comings and goings of the different hominids and homos) indicates that constant change was also part of his purpose. And I suggest that constant change runs contrary to the hypothesis that he started out with the sole purpose of creating a single species. But we have been over this a thousand times, and so if you will stop telling us that the higgledy-piggledy bush was God’s method of fulfilling his sole purpose of producing the human brain, I will stop proposing alternative interpretations of the bush and your God’s intentions.