On Tue, 10 May 2005 17:13:43 -0700, Frank Gilliland
wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2005 07:39:33 -0400, Dave Hall
wrote in :

snip
Your anti-God bias is showing. You would rather believe that the
complexity of our ecosystem occurred due to just the right random,
combinations of factors and events to produce all the diversified
species, which all have a key part to play in the total picture,
rather than consider the likelihood that an intelligent force was
somehow responsible for guiding it.


There's nothing "random" about it

Well, no, that's my whole point. Something has to "guide" the
development of life. Something has to make the decision whether 2 legs
are better than four, and whether a fifth finger makes for a more
effective tool, yet 6 fingers is overkill etc.

-- when you consider that the bell
curve consists of a population as great as the number of events that
occur in the Universe within any period of time, it becomes utterly
-ridiculous- to think that life requires divine intervention.

You're just too hung up of formal religion. It's preventing you to
consider the possibility.

And if
there -is- evidence of guidance by some intelligent force, it's far
more likely that this "force" is not God but some sort of ETI.

Well now, you ARE making progress. You opened your mind for a split
second. Tell me Frank, what is the definition of "God"?


May the
force be with you, Dave!

It always has been.

snip
But keeping with that, who said it was random? Natural evolution and
selection explains away any coincidental occurrences that you may
mistake for "random".

But what motivates natural evolution?


Natural variation, and adaptability to a dynamic environment.

Based on what criteria? There has to be a purpose for life. What
drives that purpose?


Who decides whether a mutation
is "beneficial" or not? Natural selection, otherwise known as
survival of the fittest, assumes that gene mutations which result in a
"better" species, would survive while the "lesser' versions of the
species would die out. Yet, it is said that homo-sapiens evolved from
apes. Why then are apes still around if we are the "new and improved"
version of the ape?


Because you assume that the "'lesser' versions of the species would
die out", which is not necessarily the case.

If not, then that's negates much of the evolutionary theory. If the
purpose of evolution is gradual improvement or a species, then the
"old" should die off as it is replaced by the "new".


There can be many
circumstances where a variation doesn't compete for the same resources
as it's progenitor. This explains why there are so many speices of
birds that have but slight variations -- many birds are migratory. And
so are many species of primates.

This explains subtle variations within a specific species, but that
doesn't explain how a bird came to be in the first place. Are you
proposing that a winged creature suddenly appeared by accident, as a
mutation from a land-based critter, and it proliferated all by itself.
What taught it to fly in the first place? How could a genetic anomaly
take into consideration the dynamics of flight?


Evolution only explains a small part of the puzzle.

No, you have only -learned- a small part of the puzzle.

This is true. There are very few facts and a whole host of theories
which cropped up to try to explain the facts.

The theory of intelligent design is no more far-fetched than the idea
that life began here spontaneously and proliferated into a diverse eco
system, totally at random.


......Why
do humans have self-awareness? Why do we posses an intelligence that
allows us to contemplate the unknown, and live beyond the programming
of instinctive behavior? What about the concept of a soul?


Evolution is science. The questions you ask are philosophical.

Yes, but it all relates in the bigger picture.

But
before you start putting the human race on a pedestal, maybe you
better think twice about what you assume are the differences between
humans and other animals.

Are you suggesting that other animal species are capable of possessing
similar intellectual capabilities as we have? In some cases certain
primate species have displayed social structures which transcend
simple instinctive behavior. They have also been observed fashioning
crude tools to obtain food. Dolphins and whales seem to communicate
with a rudimentary language. But not one other species can do it all,
in the same way that we do.

snip
Instead of being wishy-washy about the issue, why not consider the
possibility that evolution is, very simply, one of God's creations?

It very well might be. It's all part of the bigger plan. Like I said,
I totally accept the concepts of evolution. I just believe that the
process has been "managed" by a higher order intelligence, the
definition of which, has yet to be revealed. I am not advocating any
specific religious interpretation of "God", only that one exists.


The problem is that you don't fully understand the vast multitude of
variations that can occur in the processes of evolution.

I don't accept the theory that if you place a group of monkeys in a
cage with a bunch of typewriters that they'll eventually write every
great piece of literary works. They might type out every letter that
is contained within those works, but they will not get the order
correct. Such is the nature of chaos and randomness. It lacks
structure, direction, and order, and those elements are required for
meaningful results to occur.

Neither do
the scientists that study it. But the scientists don't insert God into
the equation whenever something doesn't add up -- they look for other
factors and they usually find them.

There are still far too many unanswered questions to discount the
theory of intelligent design.

Dave
"Sandbagger"
http://home.ptd.net/~n3cvj