Big brain evolution: our mutation rate is slowing (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, February 01, 2019, 14:04 (2120 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: He did it all stepwise. Start a universe and evolve its form. Create and evolve the Earth perfect for life. Create life and then evolve humans.

dhw: All fine until the last assumption. Why “and then evolve humans”? You have left out “and then evolve millions and millions of life forms, lifestyles and natural wonders extant and extinct that have nothing whatsoever to do with humans”. In fact, though, time and again you tell us these didn’t evolve anyway! According to you, the whale’s fin, the cuttlefish’s camouflage, the monarch’s flight path, and even the weaverbird’s nest all had to be specially designed, as did the human brain and pelvis.

DAVID: You know I view God designing every stage of evolution so humans appear from a stepwise process.

Yes, I know. And in order to maintain this view, you constantly block out the inconsistencies: 1) an always-in-control God who has one purpose (us) but spends 3.5+ billion years designing other things, and 2) you believe in evolution but insist that your God specially designs every species.

dhw: […]I have suggested several alternative interpretations of your God’s logic which you have agreed are all logical, unlike your own. [These even include the possibility that his sole purpose was to produce humans.] One of these is that since evolution reveals a constantly changing spectacle of life forms, maybe your God’s purpose was to create a constantly changing spectacle of life forms. (See below)

DAVID: Your suppositions humanize God. I've agreed, that if He thinks in a human way they are logical.

dhw: But you happen to know that he thinks in a way you can’t understand.

DAVID: I don't try to understand it. I just interpret His mechanisms as I see them.

Why don’t you try to understand it? Why are you so convinced that your interpretation is correct, and that it is simply not possible for your God to think differently from the way you interpret his thoughts?

DAVID: I'm sure He watches everything He created, like an artist enjoying his own paintings.

And now, after much humming and hawing you have confirmed this:

DAVID: I'm sure He watches all of His creation as the artist image you like.

So, still sticking to a theistic explanation of evolution, you now agree that your God’s purpose in creating the bush of life might have been to enjoy watching the bush of life. And since you think he enjoys watching humans because we have free will, perhaps you will even agree that “freedom” (i.e. cell communities freely using their God-given evolutionary mechanisms to create their own designs) might make all forms of life - your “everything” - interesting to him. (I live in hope.)