Return to David's theory of evolution PART 1 (Evolution)

by dhw, Thursday, June 16, 2022, 10:52 (681 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: What you cannot comprehend is I do not question God's motives and what history shows me makes perfect sense to me as God's doings. This approach makes perfect sense to me, if not to you.

dhw: You do not question your theory that God’s one and only motive was to design humans plus food, and you acknowledge that you have no idea why he would choose a method to fulfil this purpose which entailed specially designing the countless life forms and foods that had no connection with humans plus food. You have admitted over and over again that you can’t explain why, and your theory “makes sense only to God”. Stop dodging.

DAVID: No dodge. Your complaint about my God doesn't recognize how I think about my God, as above.

You think about your God as having one purpose (us and our food), and therefore specially designing countless life forms and foods that had no connection with us. And you have no idea why he would have done so. I recognize that you think your God acts in a way which only he can make sense of.

Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: 410,000 years

dhw: I have explained why the new findings make no difference to the discussion on missing fossils or to the feasibility of new species developing within the shortened period.

DAVID: Missing fossils are totally off point and one of your dodges. The point is we see huge changes in a very short time period from existing fossils.

Missing fossils are totally on point! That is why you claim your God designed species without precursors. I have already answered the argument about huge changes in a short time:

dhw: And secondly, even 410,000 years is a long time in terms of generations, and it is generations that create new species, not time. You yourself wrote:

DAVID: The true answer to how long speciation takes is unknown. The many gaps don't tell us.

dhw: […] If you allow say 10 years for generations, you have 41,000 generations to produce your innovations. Halve it if you like. Even 20,000 generations should be enough for intelligent cell communities to come up with their innovations.

DAVID: […] There is no existing proof of that concept. All we have is fossil gaps. We do not know how species appear or the theoretical times involved. All you have is quoting hopeful explanations while I see a designer is required.

dhw: You have hit the nail on the head. WE DO NOT KNOW. And so I quote possible explanations, as alternatives to your “hopeful explanation” that there is a God who created new species without any precursors (although conversely you also believe in the continuity of the evolutionary process – see Part Two).

DAVID: The Cambrian gap is exactly what Darwin knew. New forms with no precursors!!! And now we know in just 410,000 years. With provable fossils from both periods.

You wrote: “We do not know how species appear or the theoretical times involved”, and you have totally ignored the argument that it is generations, not time that produce new species, and even 20,000 generations of intelligent cell communities could suffice for the production of new species. You call that a “hopeful explanation”. I call it a logical explanation, but of course it remains just as theoretical as your own: that an unknown eternal, universal mind preprogrammed or dabbled every change.