Return to David's theory of evolution PARTS 1 & 2 (Evolution)

by David Turell , Friday, February 04, 2022, 16:11 (1021 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: If you were God, how would you do it differently?

dhw: [...] if I were an all-powerful God and my only purpose was to design humans and their food, I would design humans and their food. I would not design and kill off countless life forms that had nothing to do with my one and only purpose. And frankly, if I were God, I would object very strongly to a human being attributing such illogical behaviour to me, and I would suggest that he should rethink his theory to make it fit in logically with the history of life.

DAVID: Analyzed like a true human, not like a true theistic view of the real God.

dhw: Yes, I am human. I thought you were too. But no, apparently you know the true theistic view of the real God. But unfortunately, he has never explained to you why he designed countless life forms that had no connection with humans plus food, although all he wanted to do was design humans plus food.

You have expressed your exact problem. We have to accept what God did and try to understand it from a developmental view of His creation which God does not explain. I've given you my explanation which you refuse to accept, since God did it in a round-about way over lots of time, in comparison to an efficient human approach who would have gotten it done straight away. Thus your humanized God appears to solve your problem.

Evidence of non-random mutation

DAVID: Survival is required to advance evolution in stages. It does not drive new designs.

dhw: I thought we’d finished with these silly quibbles. What you are saying now is that if life forms don’t survive, there can be no evolution, which is pretty obvious. What I am saying is that the purpose of all the adaptations and innovations that lead to speciation is to improve chances of survival. A land based animal does not have its legs turn into flippers so that evolution can advance in stages. The legs turn into flippers so that it can have a better chance of survival. Organs/organisms changing into something new = evolution. Therefore the purpose of the changes (or “new designs”) which constitute the evolution of species is survival.

Fine. We have been agreeing all along.

Hummingbird torpor and sea spiders

dhw: Thank you as always for the natural wonder articles. They are a delight to read. Shame about the comments, though.

QUOTE: "At night, hummingbirds lower their body temperature and metabolism drastically by dropping into an energy-saving state of inactivity called torpor.”

DAVID: how did this evolve. It all obviously goes together purposefully, and like all irreducible complex systems it must be designed.

dhw: Why would God specially design an energy-saving mechanism just for hummingbirds when all he apparently ever wanted to do was design humans and their food? Would we really not be here, or would we starve, if it weren’t for the hummingbird’s torpor?

DAVID: Each organism fits an ecosystem providing food for all.

dhw: Yes indeed. But each ecosystem provides only for the organisms that are part of it. I do not believe, and nor do you, that every organism and every ecosystem that ever existed was “part of the goal of evolving [= designing] humans” and their ecosystems.

Yes, no other way to explain God's actions. I accept them, not complain about His methods.