Evolution: materialism explanation doesn't work (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, October 08, 2018, 14:52 (2019 days ago) @ dhw

QUOTES: “An organ must be already useful before natural selection can take hold of it to improve it,” he concedes. (DAVID’s bold)

"The argument for intelligent design here could not be simpler or clearer: unintelligent forces of physics alone cannot rearrange atoms into computers and airplanes and Apple iPhones. And the counterargument consists of four steps, each of which–to put it very generously–is full of dubious and unproven assertions."

DAVID’s comment: The two items that stick in the craw of Darwinism are reproduction and consciousness, Neither are explained by chance evolution. The last objection is my bolded sentence. How does natural selection select an organ unless it is functional to begin with? The only answer is an intelligent designer running the show.

dhw: The article repeats all the ground that we have covered over and over again in favour of design over chance. However, Darwinism does not attempt to explain life, reproduction or consciousness. It attempts to show that all organisms descend from earlier organisms, going back to the very first, whose origin is unknown. The basic problem is innovation, and many of us feel that random mutation is an extremely unlikely cause. Hence my hypothesis of possibly God-given cellular intelligence, and your hypothesis of a divine 3.8-billion-year-old computer programme for every single innovation, bar those engineered by your God’s dabbling. Natural selection, we have agreed a thousand times, only explains why innovations survive, not how they come into being.

I don't think we have agreed to anything more than natural selection is a tautology. It is a term that implies life struggles to exist when we see extremeophiles that disprove the point. And so called competition for survival is a misinterpretation of the neat balance of nature that provides food for all.

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TONY:
Monty Python's Life of Brian meets College Biology 101

Biology Student 1. Let's not forget abiogenesis.

Evolutionist Professor(Ticking off on his fingers,): Ok, so aside from reproduction, consciousness, and abiogenesis, what has evolution not been able to deal with?

Biology Student 2: Um.. speciation.

Evolutionist Professor: Right, well of course speciation. Duh. Pfhht. But excluding reproduction, consciousness,abiogenesis, and speciation, what can't evolution account for?

Biology Student 3. Lack of transitional forms in the fossil record?

Evolutionist Professor: Fair enough. I forgot about that one. Good point, but except for the reproduction, consciousness, abiogenesis, speciation, and lack of fossils, what can't evolution explain?

Biology Student 4: The increase in informational complexity?

Evolutionist Professor: Right..well of course it really shouldn't do that. It's a bit of a problem honestly. So, not taking into account reproduction, consciousness, abiogenesis, speciation, the fossil record, or the increase in information, what can't evolution explain?

Biology Student 5: The 'conservation' of genetic sequences across species whose 'most recent common ancestor' could not have possessed.

Evolutionist Professor: Bloody 'trans-species genetic conservation...' had to lie about that one a lot. A REAALL humdinger that one. But aside from reproduction, consciousness, abiogenesis, speciation, fossil record, informational increase, or genetic conservation, WHAT CAN'T EVOLUTION EXPLAIN?

dhw: I love it. Thank you! But in fairness, as above, evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life, reproduction or consciousness

THEOLOGY STUDENT: Where does God come from?

THEOLOGY PROFESSOR: We don’t know.

STUDENT: What does he look like?

PROFESSOR: We don’t know.

STUDENT: What is his nature?

PROFESSOR: We don’t know.

STUDENT: Can we see or hear him?

PROFESSOR: No.

STUDENT: Can we contact him?

PROFESSOR: No.

STUDENT: How do we know he’s there?

PROFESSOR: We don’t.

STUDENT: How do we know he was ever there?

PROFESSOR: Because life and consciousness are so complex that they must have been designed.

STUDENT: Is God alive and conscious?

PROFESSOR: Yes.

STUDENT: So who designed him?

PROFESSOR: Time for a break

From the back of the room: God is eternal!