Return to David's theory of evolution and theodicy (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, November 15, 2023, 12:06 (164 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: We know our direct line as we look back from our place among the 0.1% surviving.

dhw: Again, no disagreement. That does not mean that 99.9 out of 100 extinct species were the direct ancestors of us and our food! You have been agreeing for years that 99.9 out of 100 species had no connection with the one and only purpose you allow your God to have (us and our food), and for years you have agreed that you have no idea why he would have specially designed and then had to cull them. But of course you can believe whatever you want to believe. It’s the constant dodging that is becoming so painful.

DAVID: I have not dodged. Since I accept reality is God's work, therefore, He evolved us and everything else on Earth.

If God exists, this is a perfectly reasonable argument, except that by evolved you actually mean he individually designed every species, plus every lifestyle, strategy, natural wonder etc.

DAVID: We are part of the surviving 0.1%, but a part of the 99.9% were human ancestors, and the remainder were ancestors of every other organism now living.

The surviving 0.1% include our fellow life forms. Until a week or two ago, you had always accepted that the 99.9% of extinct life forms had no connection with us or our food. Now you are claiming that 99.9% of extinct life forms were the direct ancestors of us and our fellow live organisms. At the same time, you claim that we and our fellow animals arrived without any precursors during the Cambrian period. Can you trace a direct line from, say, cats and dogs and crocodiles and lizards to all the life forms that existed during the 3000,000,000 years before the Cambrian (most of which are probably unknown to us anyway)? Even dinosaurs have disappeared without any connections with the present apart from birds.

DAVID: Part of your confusion is not understanding Raup's statistics for evolution. He analyzed the process to determine why extinction happened and concluded it was mainly luck.

Irrelevant to your claim that your God deliberately designed and had to cull 99.9 out of 100.

DAVID: As a side effect He offered a total for extinctions since life started as 99.1%. The fact that we now run the Earth in every way we can means what exists on Earth can be used any way we wish. From a purpose standpoint, this is exactly what a designing God would create for a big brained primate.

I thought it was 99.9%. How does all that prove that every living form is directly descended from all 99.9% of extinct forms? You never stop dodging. All life forms are descended from the first cells, but the bush of life (your image) evolved into a vast number of branches, which grew away from one another, were not connected, and eventually came literally to a dead end. Regardless of percentages, you have no idea why your God deliberately designed all those branches which did not lead to us and our food, although you say we and our food were his only purpose. Please stop dodging.