Extinctions: Bad Genes or Bad Luck? A nod to D. Raup (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, February 07, 2011, 13:02 (5038 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: My teleology theory is guidance built into DNA to allow for increased complexity, when the opportunity strikes. David Raup pointed out lots of bad luck in his book covering about six mass extinctions.-From my position on the fence, I find the whole complexity argument impossible to ignore ... i.e. one simply cannot rule out design. But it is the next step in your teleological argument that I find so illogical: namely, that humans were planned from the very beginning. The whole history of life appears to depend on one environmental stroke of luck after another ... good for some, bad for others - but why should a UI rely on luck to accomplish something it has planned from the beginning? Doesn't the luck element suggest randomness rather than planning?