More miscellany Parts One & Two (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, September 16, 2024, 13:12 (2 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: The logic is design is required, thus a designing mind is required.

dhw: And the logic is that if a designing mind is required to explain the existence of designing minds, then the designing mind must have been designed by a designing mind. Back we go to the choice between two “first causes”, as above.

DAVID: No. First means first. The designing mind in uncaused.

Or infinite combinations of matter eventually produce primitive forms of life which evolve.

Two Neanderthal types (now “gaps”)

DAVID: Gould quote paraphrased: hidden secret in paleontology is tips of branches without continuity.

dhw: The tip of a branch would be its end. “Without continuity” sounds like Raup’s 99.9% extinction. Why don’t you just stick to the point: there will always be gaps.

DAVID: YES.

Subject closed.

Recent new modifications

DAVID: No evidence cells produce speciation.

dhw: It’s a theory based on their established ability to edit their own DNA. There is no evidence that an unknown, eternal mind programmed or dabbled every innovation, lifestyle, strategy etc. In your case, it’s a theory based on the definite type of God you want: i.e. an omnipotent, omniscient, purposeful God whose only purpose was to design us plus food, and who therefore inexplicably and inefficiently designed every species, though he then had to cull 99.9% of them because they were irrelevant to his purpose.

DAVID: That is the huge gap in your thinking: all of evolution evolved the present supply of plants and animals providing food and materials for human use. Nothing extraneous. Culling simply equals the process.

The present supply of plants and animals evolved from 0.1% off past species. According to you, for more than 3,000,000,000 years (pre-Cambrian), not even 0.1% evolved the present supply. And even you are troubled by your evolutionary theory, because you know that it makes no sense for an omniscient, omnipotent God to design 99.9% of species irrelevant to his one and only goal of designing us and our food.

Earthworm DNA is weird

QUOTE: "They suspect the worm's genomes scrambled in response to shifts into new habitats, but have yet to determine which came first, the worm's ventures into freshwater and land or their genes' adventures into new positions in their genetic molecules (chromosomes).”

Common sense suggests to me that just as bacteria are able to edit their DNA in response to new conditions, the worm did the same.

Plate tectonics drive evolution

QUOTES: "Furthermore, we analyzed a series of environmental factors that we considered potential candidates for influencing coelacanth evolutionary rates. These included tectonic plate activity, ocean temperatures, water oxygen levels, and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.”
"Of all the variables we looked at, the one with the greatest influence on the rate of coelacanth evolution was tectonic plate activity. New species of coelacanth were more likely to evolve during periods of heightened tectonic activity, as seismic movement transformed habitats.” (David’s bold)

As above, the crucial factor is the way species change according to conditions. As with the worm, these are adaptations, and we should distinguish between brand new species (through innovation) and species of species (all the different kinds of coelacanth), but common sense suggests that both are triggered by organisms (cell communities) responding to new conditions. The autonomous ability to do so would have been designed by God, if he exists.