Return to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, January 30, 2024, 11:30 (88 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Your usual complaint. God evolved us and He shouldn't have.

Your usual ridiculous distortion. If God exists, he would have created the system whereby all species evolved (not just us), and I have no complaint. My complaint is that your theory has him designing 99.9 out of 100 species that had no connection with us or our contemporaries, although you insist that we and our contemporaries were his sole purpose, and you yourself have no idea why he would choose such a messy, cumbersome and inefficient method to achieve his purpose. STOP DODGING

99.9% versus 0.1%

dhw: You have agreed that the 99.9% of extinct species were NOT the ancestors of the current 0.1% of survivors.

DAVID: I have not agreed with the bold. 99.9% ARE the ancestors of the 0.1% surviving. Except for the Cambrians and the insectivores noted by Bechly, everything alive today can trace its origin back twig by twig through 99.9% extinct, per Raup.

Jan 2nd: dhw: Only the 0.1% led to current forms.
DAVID: We agree. And Jan 9th: I am not disagreeing.

Jan. 11th: dhw: Do you believe that we and our food are directly descended from 99.9% of all creatures that ever lived?

DAVID: No. From the 0.1% surviving.

Jan 10th […] DAVID: Dinosaurs are 100% dead. They might be the ancestors of birds, but that is disputed now.

dhw: Which means it’s possible that not even 0.1% of dinosaurs were the ancestors of current species!

Please explain how the above quotes mean that you do not agree that only 0.1% led to current forms.

DAVID: Species were not culled out.

dhw: Statements by you:

“The 0.1%, of which we are a part, are the survivors of the culling process.”

“Evolution had to cull 99.9% to reach today’s surviving 0.1%." (dhw: According to you, your God controlled evolution – the process of evolution did not control God. Ergo God had to cull…)

“What lives today are the survivors of the culling process of evolution.”

And yesterday (bolded above): “That 99.9% went extinct is a result of the culling.”

dhw: How do those statements come to mean that species were not culled out? [...]

DAVID: You are confused. I am not. My quotes are consistent with my point of view.

Please explain how the above statements mean that species were not culled out.

DAVID: Read what I've entered today. It should unconfuse you.

I read everything you write, and this discussion is not about what Raup and Bechly did or didn’t say. I have compared your conclusions of today with your conclusions earlier this month, and they are a direct contradiction of one another. So let’s see if we can get some straight answers:

Do you believe that 99.9% of dinosaurs were the ancestors of species living today?

Do you believe that your all-powerful God designed every species, but had no control over the culling of 99.9% of them?