Return to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, October 30, 2022, 08:22 (753 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: […] 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. […]

DAVID: […] 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.

dhw: The whole design argument is based on the principle that ALL life forms are too complex to have been the result of what you call “natural” evolution. Are you now telling us that, for instance, the brontosaurus was NOT a surprising result if “natural” evolution was accepted?

DAVID: The form of the brontosaurus is not the surprise issue. It is our brain!!!

So if by “naturally” you mean that your God did not design it, you are not surprised that the brontosaurus evolved naturally, and yet you insist that your God designed every life form, econiche, lifestyle, strategy and natural wonder! Birds can’t even migrate “naturally” and possums can’t even feign death “naturally” – that would be too “surprising” for you!

dhw: But you are yet again deliberately pretending that the issue here is the existence of your God as designer in order to dodge the bolded question at the start of this post, which you can’t answer. This dodging game is getting tiresome!

DAVID: Same old answer: God as the designer CHOSE TO evolve us. God has the right to create by any method He wishes.

Same old dodge. If God exists, he chose evolution as the process by which ALL life forms except the very first came into being. Yes, of course he has the right to create by any method he wishes. But that does not mean he chose the absurdly illogical method described in the bolded question above which you keep dodging.

DAVID: Today's bush provides our food.

dhw: I doubt if anyone would disagree with your observation that today's food supply supplies us with food. You are on safe ground. Now please explain why your God would have designed all the dead ends of past giant food bushes which had no connection with us and our food, although you insist that they were all “absolute requirements” in preparation for us and our food.

DAVID: Full explained as supporting ecosystems no longer needed.

No longer needed for what? If they had no connection with us and our food, they were never needed for us and our food! You offer the same non-argument to defend your theory that all life forms and econiches that preceded the Cambrian were necessary for your God to design us and our food, although we and our food sprang from life forms that had no predecessors.

The Cambrian Explosion

dhw [...] Why would your all-powerful God have created all those dead ends if he was planning to start afresh in the Cambrian?

DAVID: Prior biochemical systems development and a changing/evolving Earth environment (i.e., more oxygen) set the stage for the Cambrian. Dead ends were necessary: "Full explained as supporting ecosystems no longer needed."

Full circle: they were NEVER needed for the creation of us and our food if we and our food are descended from ancestors designed WITHOUT ANY PREDECESSORS during the Cambrian. There was no need for any pre-Cambrian life at all if his one and only purpose was to design us and our food from scratch during the Cambrian!

Food need

dhw: …please stop trying to equate our obvious need for food with the issue of why your God would act in ways which you impose on him and which you yourself cannot understand.

DAVID: I impose nothing on God!! I view the history, we analyze, as God created. In that way I have full understanding based on assuming God chose this method.

But your assumption that in order to design sapiens and food, your God chose to design countless life forms and econiches that had no connection with sapiens plus food, makes no sense. That is why you keep dodging the bolded question at the start of this post.