Return to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 11:30 (737 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: God started a universe, created life (which is a lot more complicated) and evolved a human brain.

dhw: If he exists, he also “evolved” (for you = designed) countless other life forms, the vast majority of which had no connection with humans or our food. Why have you edited them out?

DAVID: Same tunnel vision. Evolution must have dead ends or there is no evolutionary progress.

Why? If your God knew exactly how to produce humans plus food, then all he had to do was produce humans plus food (Creationism), but if he wanted to do it through evolution, then he could have stuck to the life forms that led to us and our food. That in fact is precisely what you think he did in the Cambrian, when he created life forms which had no predecessors and which led to us and our food. Although even then you have him also designing dead ends that did not lead to us and our food!

DAVID: I am fully aware of all the dead ends that were food supply for the lines that progressed to the next stage, which also shows the progressive lines also had side branch dead ends.

The fact that you are aware of the dead ends which had no connection with us and our food makes it all the more astonishing that you keep insisting they were necessary for us and our food.

DAVID: You are a great storyteller, but I think have little recognition of what a God is supposed to be.

dhw: How can anyone know what a God is “supposed to be”? Even you, with your illogical theories, keep telling us we can’t know his reasons and we mustn’t “humanize” him (although you never cease to do so). […]

DAVID: The dead ends were necessary food supply through all stages on the way to now.

dhw: But all “stages” did not lead to now or to us or to our food! As you say above, only “what has survived” led to now. The vast majority died out long before now and had no connection with now or with us, so they could not have been necessary for now or for us. But if your God designed them, he must have had a reason, and so back we go to the beginning of this post. [I offered you three logical reasons for the dead ends.]

DAVID: His reasons: 1) advance the complexity of living biochemistry; 2) advance the complexity of living forms: 3) feed the advancing forms with necessary ecosystems; 4) end with the human brain.

If he already knew all about “living biochemistry” and what advanced and complex living forms he wanted to design, why did he have to design countless forms, both less and more advanced and complex, that had no connection with his sole purpose - us and our food? And why did he have to design the brontosaurus’s brain if he only wanted to design the brains of mice and men?

DAVID: God as designer can skip forms when He wishes. Proof is the Cambrian.

dhw: Of course he can skip forms if he wishes (assuming he exists). But you can hardly skip the fact that if our ancestors had no predecessors prior to the Cambrian, we cannot be said to have descended from forms prior to the Cambrian, and every pre-Cambrian life form cannot have been necessary for him to produce our ancestors.

DAVID: If God designed it, it was necessary. You have weird thoughts about God.
And under “toxoplasm”:
DAVID: Everything God designs was necessary, because if God designed it and it appeared, it was necessary. Everything found in evolution was God's creation!! Why do you forget that point?

The usual flannel, followed by the usual question: Necessary for what? You keep telling us that all the life forms and their food (mainly other life forms) which had no connection with us and our food were necessary for us and our food. “Why do you forget that (illogical) point”? I suggest that if God designed it, he wanted to design it. If he wanted a free-for-all he got it, but that means he did not design everything found in evolution. I needn’t repeat my other alternative explanations.

DAVID: You are so conflicted in your total lack of understanding of design theory.

dhw: I don’t know of any design theory which stipulates that before you design what you want to design, you must first design countless things that have no connection with what you want to design.

Not answered.

DAVID: God is bright enough to see Archaea and envision the human brain to appear later on.

dhw: Why “see” Archaea and then “envision” our brain? This suggests that the sight of Archaea gave him the idea for the human brain (links up with my 3rd theory). So from then on maybe he experimented to find the best way to create our brain (2nd theory)? But then maybe he realized that he was getting nowhere, and hit on a different idea (2nd theory) and created species from scratch (Cambrian), one of which would bring him the desired result, while some of the rest would provide our food supply? This is getting interesting!

Not answered. Please explain what you meant by the "envision" comment.