Return to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, November 07, 2022, 12:28 (745 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Evolution produces dead ends.

dhw: You keep hiding behind “evolution” producing this, that and the other (nicely in keeping with my free-for-all alternative), and forgetting that according to your theory it is your God who specially designed all the dead ends, and he designed them all as absolute requirements for us and our food, although by definition none of them led to us and our food!

DAVID: You keep forgetting your agreement God can do whatever He wishes. The history of evolution with its dead ends is what God produced on His way to the creation of humans.

You keep deliberately leaving out your fixed beliefs (which are not facts) that 1) he individually designed every dead-end life form, ecosystem, natural wonder etc. that had no connection with us and our food, in spite of the fact that 2) his only purpose was to create us and our food. And you keep forgetting that if he can do whatever he wishes, it is totally illogical for him to “have to do” 1) as an “absolute requirement” if he is to achieve 2).

DAVID: Living forms run on biologic systems. The Ediacaran biologic systems are the basis for the phenotypic Cambrian changes in form, but not living biology which is continuous.

dhw: I don’t understand the second sentence. If Ediacaran “biological systems” provided the basis for new species, then we have continuity. Evolution’s history is that of living forms and biological systems changing into new forms and systems, so why do you say “not living biology"? What you have described IS living biology, and upholds the conventional view of evolution.

DAVID: I'll try again: the biochemistry that makes life is one aspect of evolution. The second aspect is the form of the living organisms. Ediacaran biochemistry is the biochemical basis for Cambrian forms. The continuity of evolution is in the underling biochemistry which then allows for/permits the changing phenotypic forms.

Yes, yes, all living things share the same biochemistry which allows for evolution. And evolution is the history of the changing “phenotypic” forms. But that does not mean that we humans and our food are the direct descendants of the brontosaurus. The history of the changing forms is one of countless branches, the majority of which did not lead to us and our food, even though they all use the biochemistry of life. Your statement of the obvious does not answer the point I made yesterday: You cannot claim that there is a continuous line from the first life forms to us and our ecosystems and at the same time claim that we and our ecosystems are descended from a line of life forms and ecosystems that had no predecessors!

DAVID: The Cambrian is based upon the Ediacaran. That is evolution!!!!

dhw: Exactly! So why do you keep telling us that your God designed the 37 phyla from which we and our food (plus lots more dead ends) have descended, and they had no predecessors? Without predecessors you cannot have continuity!

DAVID: But there is continuity in the biochemistry.

That does not mean we and our food are descended from every plant and animal that ever existed, and therefore it is nonsense to claim that your God designed every plant and animal that ever existed because they were all necessary for him to design us and our food. And if we are descended from phenotypic forms which your God designed in the Cambrian without predecessors, we cannot be descended from any forms that existed before the Cambrian!