Contingent evolution (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, June 24, 2014, 15:46 (3593 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You may both be right (says the agnostic), but you have conveniently ignored the conclusion to this article:
> 
> "It's very exciting to have been able to directly study alternative ancient histories," Thornton said. "If evolutionary history could be relaunched from ancestral starting points, we would almost certainly end up with a radically different biology from the one we have now. Unpredictable genetic events are constantly opening paths to some evolutionary outcomes and closing the paths to others, all within the biochemical systems of our cells."
> 
> You take this to indicate purpose, because your starting point is an anthropocentric view of evolution, which ... just like the theory of abiogenesis ... is pure speculation. It is just as easy to take the above as meaning that "unpredictable" chance, not purpose, has dictated the biology we have now.-You are simply accepting his opinion about the rudderless appearance of evolution. That is the materialist viewpoint, no more valid than ours.