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

by David Turell , Monday, February 07, 2011, 15:04 (5038 days ago) @ dhw


> 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?-You have a good point, but evolution started 3.7 billion years ago with the following background: the universe is extremely dangerous, and the Earth is quite unstable in its evolution. The 'random events' were expected to occur and to influence evolution. Mammals lay in wait, but not eradicated until the dinosaurs had their extinction, and mammala could then advance. Each expected extinction advanced evolution toward its future. Timing is the only true randomness. I am positiing God's thoughts at 3.7 million years ago. He assumed He had all the time necessary. The process would get to humans when it got there.