Return to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, January 25, 2024, 15:49 (301 days ago) @ dhw

Tony: "sole purpose" This is one of those phrases I always took issue with. Why do we (humans) have to be the 'sole purpose' as opposed to 'part of the plan'?

DAVID: Part of the plan is better.
And under “euglenids”:
dhw: Once more, could it possibly be that your God did not want just us and our food, but actually wanted a vast variety of living forms even before our late arrival on the scene?

DAVID: Yes to the now bolded.

dhw: We are making huge progress. […] We can now discuss what might be the other parts of the plan. Question to Tony and David: Why do you think your God might have wanted the vast variety of extinct life forms that had no connection with humans and our use of current resources?

DAVID: It is the same distorted question. To provide today's diversity of life a huge number of diverging forms had to develop. The 99.9% are simply the answers of today's living 0.1%.

dhw: No one will deny that in order to have diverging forms, you have to have diverging forms. I have no idea what you mean by “the answers”.

Substitute the word ancestors.

And from Miscellany Part Two:

DAVID: Same old distortion of evolution's math. The 0.1% survival simply means 99.9%, as ancestors of 0.1% are gone. God achieved His goal. Humans run the Earth and use all its resources.

dhw: 99.9% of past species were not ancestors of the current 0.1%! No distortion. And here you go again: “God achieved his goal” after you’ve just agreed with Tony that “part of his goal” would be better. Back we go: why do you think your God designed the vast variety of extinct life forms that had no connection with humans who now run the Earth and use its resources? (I also asked why you thought your God wanted us to take charge, but you will no doubt continue to dodge that question too.)

DAVID: The bolded is a GROSS CONFUSION OF MATH. 99.9% plus 0.1% is 100% of all of evolution.

dhw: Correct.

DAVID: The 0.1% survival simply means 99.9%, as ancestors of 0.1% are gone.

dhw: 99.9% of extinct diverging forms were not the ancestors of today’s diverging forms! You have even suggested that maybe 100% of dinosaurs were not the ancestors of today’s diverging forms. Only 0.1% of past diverging forms were the ancestors of today’s diverging forms. Meanwhile, you have agreed with Tony that humans (including their dominance and use of Earth’s resources) were not your God’s sole purpose, so do please tell us what you think was the rest of God’s plan, and in particular why you think he would have wanted to create the 99.9% of living forms that were not connected to us.

Our current huge population needs all the diversity of Earth's living forms for our use. As for your 99.9% confusion, I repeat: 99.9% of all forms make all the ancestors of the 0.1%. From a species standpoint, humans are a tiny fraction of the several million species on Earth.

dhw: In case you might wonder why this matters, it ultimately concerns the very nature of a possible God if we assume he exists.

DAVID: Well, I believe he exists and planned upon humans having dominion of the Earth.

dhw: Yes, but please tell us what you think was the rest of his plan.

It is our future.