Miscellany (General)

by dhw, Thursday, January 07, 2021, 09:11 (1417 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I don't dodge your series of complaints. I have a singular belief, not chopped up into your parts: God started life and chose to evolve us from bacteria. Simple. Logical.

dhw: Of course it’s simple and logical on its own. But you have again left out your belief that although designing H. sapiens and his food supply was your God’s one and only purpose, he directly designed every life form, food supply, natural wonder etc. in the history of life, and 99% of these had no connection with humans.

DAVID: Your contorted complaint is simply a recitation of what evolution does, and it is my belief God does it, by designing all stages.

You have no idea why, if his sole purpose was to design H. sapiens, he first directly designed millions of life forms and econiches that had no connection with humans.

dhw:

DAVID: I left your Cheshire cat smile.

Then let me restore your agreement to the above, since you continue to ignore what you agreed to:

DAVID: You are correct. I have no idea why He uses that method.

dhw: Thank you. That is the acknowledgement I asked for. I suggest we leave it at that.

DAVID: Fine.

dhw:

But still you refuse to leave it at that, and you continue to ignore the COMBINATION of your beliefs that makes no sense even to you. If you stick to the above agreement, we can end this discussion.

Cambrian Explosion

DAVID:[…] You can't escape the enormous complexity that developed with no transitional forms, as very simple Edicarans became simple Cambrian forms and then very complex Cambrians.

dhw: The article is based on the recent discovery of “exceptional fossils” proving that there were transitional forms from Ediacarans to Cambrians. It is astonishing that there are still fossils dating from 500 million years ago! We really can’t expect a continuous line of fossilized transitional forms. I am not denying the complexity. I am simply pointing out that 55 million years is a helluva long time, and the latest discoveries confirm that the process of evolution is a slope and not a cliff, and that “there certainly isn’t an abrupt dividing line in evolution” [...] So I don’t find it impossible to believe that if humans can evolve from apes in 4 million years, other complex forms can evolve from simpler forms in 55 million years – especially if we substitute cellular intelligence for Darwin’s random mutations.

DAVID: You can't explain the mysterious source of cellular intelligence on a chance basis, so the theory is quite hollow. It didn't just appear our of nowhere.

How often do I have to repeat that I do not accept the chance theory, and cellular intelligence may well have been designed by your God?

DAVID: And the human breakaway from apes is estimated by science as over six million years. Are you purposely sticking to four million out of some sort of defiance against me?

The more websites we consult, the hazier it all gets. I’m not defying you, and I’m quite happy to accept six million years. It makes no difference to my argument. This is the website I consulted:

Human Evolution: A Timeline of Early Hominids [Infographic ...

earthhow.com/human-evolution-timeline/

(My apologies: owing to my technical incompetence, I can't get a direct link. I'm sure you'll know what to do!)

QUOTE: "For about 4 million years, human evolution has been a long, long process. From the early hominids to modern humans, we are in the process of evolving at this very moment.
About 3.9 – 2.55 million years ago, Australopithecus Afarensis was the earliest form of hominids.
Archaeologists dug up fossils in the Afar Triangle of Africa, hence the name “Afarensis”."

Cosmology

QUOTE: "But the meaning of eROSITA’s mushroom clouds is clear: Something went bang in the center of the Milky Way around 15 million to 20 million years ago, around the same time hyenas and weasels were emerging on Earth.”

DAVID: It all gets complexer and complexer and God has not explained why all the weirdness. But is always tums out the weird is necessary, and makes us agree God knows what He is doing and how everything we see must be necessarily designed for creation.

I really don’t know why a bang in the centre of the Milky Way 15-20 million years ago “makes us agree that God knows what he is doing”, or what it has to do with creation, since life goes back thousands of millions of years.

Genome complexity

QUOTE: "Starting as a single cell, organisms undergo millions of generations of divisions to ultimately generate the bones, heart, brain and other components that make up a living being. The mainspring within this intricate process is the transfer of DNA through each subsequent cell split within discrete packets called chromosomes."

DAVID: This is another example where all parts must be designed to appear at the same time for life to continue, not step by step. Chance developments cannot do this.

The quote highlights the continuity of evolution through the activities of cells, and I agree with you: belief in chance requires blind faith, and the complexities of the cell are the strongest evidence for design. However, I need not repeat the problems I have regarding an eternally conscious, sourceless designer.