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

by dhw, Thursday, February 10, 2011, 11:31 (5035 days ago) @ David Turell

David believes that God planned humans from the very beginning, and I asked whether he thought God had also planned dinosaurs, dodos and the duck-billed platypus.-My question was not a flippant one. It opens up interesting areas of debate. I pointed out that if God did design the dodo etc., the implication was that the evolution of all species was planned. If he didn't, then all species except humans were the result of chance (which I find highly illogical). My question actually ties in with Matt's. He asked: "where does divine intervention start and where does it stop?" ... to which you replied: "I believe that intervention is a drive to complexity code[d] within the genome. Outside the genome, I don't know."-I really like this answer, as it allows for all divine scenarios, including those that I suggested. But the moment you take the step of assuming that God planned man, Matt's question comes fully into play: what else did he plan? It even leads to what I see as a possible crutch for creationists. One great obstacle Darwin had to overcome was the religious belief that God created all species separately. Your idea of pre-planning would allow for that belief AND for evolution as Darwin describes it, because even though all creatures evolved "naturally", each of them could have been pre-programmed, like man, to do so. In other words, they (dinosaur, dodo and duck-billed platypus) were created individually, but God simply organized the programme in such a way that they emerged (like man) when the time was "right". David, this could win you the go(l)d medal for Creationist of the Year!-Only it doesn't stop there. After all, your version of God is within and without the universe, which he is supposed to have created. Matt's question therefore still applies. God could also have pre-programmed the environmental changes that would lead to the pre-programmed species. After all, every step along the evolutionary trail would have required MATERIAL causes, assuming that God worked through science and not through magic. If he needed to stage an extinction, he would have done so precisely through the material means to which scientists attribute those extinctions (meteors, volcanoes or whatever). Then he wouldn't have had to rely on luck at all. -Of course you're right that no-one can really know God's thoughts. But although you don't KNOW them, you BELIEVE (see our epistemological framework) you have a good idea of what one of them was ... i.e. that God planned humans. So I hope you won't mind if we continue to probe the implications of this belief.