Human evolution; traits from many points in DNA (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, May 23, 2019, 18:53 (2009 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: We really do not know how genes control traits. Environment plays an unknown degree of influence, as dhw notes.

dhw: Thank you for this gracious acknowledgement. All our discussions revolve around things “we really do not know”, but I don’t think it requires a great deal of thought, research and money to realize that interaction between the genome and the environment lies at the heart of evolution.

DAVID: What is at the heart of driving evolution is God. What environment does, and I include competition with other organisms under the environment umbrella, is species adaptation to the problems presented, nothing more.

dhw: Even for someone who believes in God, it should be crystal clear that evolutionary adaptations and innovations must enable the organism to survive or improve its chances of survival in a given environment. Otherwise the adaptation/innovation is totally pointless. You claim your God turned pre-whale legs into flippers before sending the pre-whale into the water. The innovation/adaptation is still geared to a change of environment. I don’t know how many of your fellow theists will agree that your God preprogrammed or dabbled every change in advance of the new environmental conditions, but it makes no difference: the changing environment remains key to the progress of evolution as the trigger for anatomical change, whether by your God or by cellular intelligence. You have the added problem of deciding whether your God does or does not control every single environmental change that requires or allows for the anatomical changes which constitute speciation.

My belief is that God caused speciation. Darwin-style evolution is incapable of it.