Natures wonders: Subsea Microorganisms Long Life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, August 23, 2018, 19:09 (2282 days ago) @ dhw

TONY: Getting food and such is far, far, far different that "understanding the need for a change and how to best meet that need, understanding oneself enough to know what needs to change at a genetic level, applying that change, and keeping track of which changes didn't work so as not to repeat mistakes. […]

Amazingly, you have just described precisely what bacteria are able to do, as you will see from the list of examples I gave you on Saturday 11 August under “An Alternative to Evolution: Expounded Upon”, which you appear to have missed.

DAVID (referring to Tony’s comment above): A beautifully expressed paragraph which describes the need for foresight and planning before a complexly changed organism can arrive! No itty-bitty steps, suggested by the dhw proposal, exist in the fossil record.

dhw: I keep repeating that in my proposal evolution progresses through responses to environmental changes – e.g. the pre-whale entered the water before its legs changed to fins – as opposed to divine dabbling or preprogramming in advance of environmental changes - e.g. pre-whales lying on the shore while your God changes their legs to fins. Your proposal also raises the never answered question of the extent to which your God controls the environment.

You have, as usual, skipped over Tony's point and mine about the need for foresight and planning. Your obviously step-wise approach doesn't fit the fossil record or logic concerning design of massive changes. Leg to flipper is a huge anatomic alteration, but not anything like a blow hole on top of the skull. As for climate, we have a definite example of how God might have changed environmental conditions and alter evolution in Chixculub.