Evolution: more genomic evidence of pre-planning (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, March 07, 2021, 17:04 (1146 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: But this not ever explain, why vast overcapacity is created. You always ignore that point.

dhw: You always ignore my answers to that point, but what overcapacity are you talking about? Now please tell us what vast overcapacity you are referring to, and why you think your God created it.

DAVID: You apparently cannot recognize over-capacity when it exists in as newly arrived form of a brain. Your stasis discussion is entirely off point and simply descriptive of what happens next after the huge new form of brain arrives on the scene. It is as if you bought a new small car with a 600 hp engine. For what purpose?

My point is that the brains were NOT oversized. Are you referring here only to H. sapiens, and are you referring to shrinkage? I have explained both ad nauseam. In my theory, the pre-sapiens brain, like all brains beforehand, needed to expand in order to meet unknown new requirements which the smaller brain could not meet. It expanded to the size needed for the new requirements, and although complexification would no doubt have taken place on a minor scale (as with all brains beforehand), it was not till 300,000 years later that new requirements required further changes, but as the brain had reached maximum size for the anatomy, complexification took over almost completely. And it was so efficient that some cells were no longer needed. Hence shrinkage. Now please tell us why your God produced what you consider to be oversized brains 300,000 years before they were needed! And please don’t say it was so that we could learn to use them, since obviously we didn’t learn to use them until 300,000 years later!

David's theory of evolution

DAVID: God chose to design/evolve all living forms with humans as His final goal.

dhw: Same deliberate dodge. How does your statement come to mean that every living form in life’s history was “part of the goal of evolving [= designing] humans” when 99% of forms had no connection with humans? (See also “theodicy”).

DAVID: Same weird chopping up of evolution into unrelated segments. Evolution proceeds from bacteria to humans without stopping. Under common descent we are direct results from bacteria.

You keep agreeing that evolution branches off into countless unrelated segments, or are you saying that lizards, which have no connection with mammals, were “part of the goal of evolving humans”? Please stop restricting evolution to the one line from bacteria to humans.

Symbiosis by bacteria

AVID: Life simply goes from one generation to the next, survival of forms guaranteed by God's designs.

dhw: 99% of forms have not survived. And common descent indicates that life doesn’t simply go from one generation to the next, but it also branches out into new forms. Why? Because organisms look for new ways of surviving. Once more, please tell us why pre-whales’ legs became flippers, if it was not to enable them to improve their chances of survival in a new environment.

DAVID: Of course God had to give them flippers if they were to enter a watery environment.

I’ll skip the question of whether God did it or not, and simply ask you again whether you do or don’t agree that the purpose of the flippers was/is to enable whales to improve their chances of survival in the water. If not, what was their purpose?

Immortal bacteria

DAVID: two major points. Some forms are designed to be able to live forever. The need to survive does not drive evolution. That 99% are gone is of no import. And here must be adequate food supply for life to thrive.

The need to survive did not drive immortal bacteria to change into something else because they are fine as they are! Now please tell us what purpose adaptations serve if not to improve organisms' chances of surviving in new conditions. And please remember you said that whales’ flippers did not advance evolution. 99% of life forms unconnected with humans denote the absurdity of arguing that they were part of the goal of evolving humans. And there had to be adequate food for EVERY life form that ever lived, and 99% of these had no connection with humans.

Playing possum

QUOTE: “Playing dead seems to be a very good way to stay alive.'"

DAVID: How is this learned, since it implies conceptual thinking? How is the length of time that one plays possum determined? Perhaps God designed this mechanism. […]

dhw: […] The intelligence of possums IS my answer. And maybe your God designed the intelligence of possums and every other creature that uses strategies, lifestyles or physical adaptations in order to SURVIVE.

DAVID: You have possums conceptualizing necessary time intervals. How very sentient of them! I'll stick with God's help.

dhw: I don’t know about “conceptualizing necessary time intervals”. I don’t think it requires super intelligence for an animal to perceive when the coast is clear. And YES in block capitals, I do believe that our fellow creatures are sentient. What makes you think they are not?

DAVID: Sentient, yes, conceptualizing, no.

I do not imagine possums dreaming up abstract ideas, if that’s what you mean. And I do not think they would need to. Acting dead and waiting till the danger has passed does not seem to me to require human levels of conceptualization.