Evolution: Bilaterians & Ediacarans (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 18:13 (1705 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: The fossil is approx. 555 million years old. The mind boggles at the very thought of a “body” being preserved for that length of time. I really don’t see why we should not accept that it is yet another link in the chain of Darwinian common descent. We have discussed the Cambrian explosion many times, the last occasion being just a few weeks ago when I suggested that a major change in the environment (currently I think the pet theory is still an increase in oxygen) would have either necessitated or allowed for major changes organized by the intelligent cell communities of which all multicellular organisms are composed. I presume your theory is that a major change in the environment necessitated or allowed for major changes organized by God. Same process, different organizer. (NB my suggestion does not exclude God, who may have been the designer of cellular intelligence.)

DAVID: The bold is your pet theory, not mine. Oxygen usage is a very dangerous process, but currently is the major source of allowing life to create energy providing warm bodies with a maintained temperature. Our bodies contain antioxidants to protect us from oxygen damage. Oxidation is a forest fire, to remind all of how dangerous it is. Therefore the evolutionary development of oxygen use requires very complex design planning, far beyond pie-in-the-sky so-called cell committee intelligence. God didn't give the cells that ability. He designed new processes directly. What we see in cells that makes them seem intelligent, is the beautiful automaticity by which cells create their products and their responses to stimuli.

dhw: I was quoting the pet theory concerning the environmental change that triggered the Cambrian Explosion. It may have been something else. Whatever it was, we know that there was a creative “explosion” in which the structures of the cell communities of which all organisms are composed underwent colossal changes. I’m surprised at the authority with which you state that your God did it directly and did not design an autonomous intelligence which you consider to be a 50/50 possibility.

Another mistake or misdirection about my beliefs. I do not think an autonomous intelligence from God exists to allow evolutionary changes or daily adaptive changes beyond the epigenetic changes which we know about. For new species, God speciates. The 50/50 possibility is my honest observation of the odds of truth. I believe 100% that so-called cellular intelligence is cells following God-provided instructions.

dhw: It’s also surprising that he should specially design every single one of these new species when according to you all he really wanted to design was H. sapiens. But I am not supposed to look for any logical link between your various beliefs, am I?

Your logical beliefs are obviously not mine. Your imagined God and my belief in God result in two very different images of God with different modes of action. Once again you are wondering why God waited to create us, a humanizing view of God. Since God created the times lines of history, we simply know He decided to take the time.