Return to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Friday, October 28, 2022, 19:29 (540 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The fact that I cannot know God's reasons for evolving us does not keep me from intelligently analyzing the history. Long ago we agreed Darwin's sketch of a simple tree of life was really a giant bush. That giant bush is the current set of ecosystems for our food
supply. All evolved by God's design.

dhw: You never stop dodging. The giant bush of life goes back approx 3.8 billion years. It included countless dead-end life forms and ecosystems which had no connection with the current giant bush of life forms and ecosystems, although you believe that the current giant bush was your God’s one and only purpose from the start of life. Your God’s reasons for evolving us refer to a different theory (leading to your inability to explain why he designed us in stages instead of directly). The question you can’t answer here is why for 3.X billion years he designed giant bushes of life, the vast majority of whose branches had no connection with what you say was his one and only purpose.

No one knows God's exact reasoning, but what happened makes good sense to me. You must first make the assumption God chose to evolve us which fit the history. We are the surprising result, if natural evolution is accepted. That is Adler's point: our amazing brain with its fully capable consciousness had to be a result of direct God activity, not nature. The giant bush was created for a purpose: our food. All very logical.

The Cambrian Explosion

dhw: Your theory that we are descended from Cambrian organisms that had no predecessors makes nonsense of your theory that your God’s purpose from the very beginning of life was to create us and our food. A God who can do whatever he likes would not have “had to” create all the unnecessary organisms and ecosystems prior to the Cambrian, and even you admit that it makes no sense that even after the Cambrian he went on to design us in stages. (You say your theory “makes sense only to God”.)

DAVID: It all comes back to the food-need issue. Starting many new phyla which ended at 37, provided the necessary bush of life, which formed the overall ecosystems that provide our current food supply needs. What God did makes perfect sense to me.

dhw: Now you are telling us that 500+ million years ago your God created not only the human line of life, but also those of our foods, without any predecessors. So all the life forms etc that he designed before the Cambrian had no connection with us or with our food supplies! They were all dead ends. Once more, why would your God, who can do what he likes, have designed all those dead ends?

DAVID: Previously explained: the substrate of evolutionary advances involves advancing biochemical complexity in living forms and environmental changes offering a better environment (for the Cambrian more oxygen) for more complex forms. Evolution is the present built from the past.

dhw: All very true, but this does not explain why an all-powerful God who knows what he wants (us plus food), and knows how to get it, decided first to specially design environments and organisms which had no connection with the only forms and environments he wanted to design. He might just as well have started life in the Cambrian, since you insist that he designed our whole bush of life forms without any predecessors. The rest of your post simply continues your effort to dodge your own admission that you can’t provide any answers, and your theories make sense only to God.

Same old problem. Allow God to choose His methodology. He doesn't think as you do, telling us how He could do it better. Stick with real history and result in real answers.

Food need (transferred from “More miscellany”:

QUOTE: This technology can improve plant production speed and has the potential to help address global food supply issues.

DAVID: Then you do understand the vital balance between our burgeoning population and food.

dhw: I have never questioned it. ALL life forms need food and ALL ecosystems have always needed “balance” in order for them to get it! But this article has nothing to do with your illogical theories of evolution. The subject here is a new farming technique!

Which provides a better necessary food supply!!

DAVID: But then the God you view didn't. My God, in a proper interpretation, knew the human population would be eventually huge and need a huge bush of life, which He therefore, provided.

dhw: But you still can’t explain why your God would have designed huge bushes of life for 3.X billion years’ worth of life forms, the vast majority of which had no connection with us and our giant food bush. I do wish you would stop using obvious truths to divert attention away from the illogical sections of your theories,

Nothing illogical. Today's bush provides our food.