Does evolution have a purpose? (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, October 22, 2014, 21:01 (3464 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by dhw, Wednesday, October 22, 2014, 21:16

I asked David a number of questions concerning what amounts to macroevolution: all the major developments that have led to speciation. I'll quote just one as it stands for the rest:
 
dhw: So the organs you identify with “patterns” (heart, lungs, kidneys, brains etc.) are too complex for God's inventive mechanism to have invented autonomously. Therefore he preprogrammed them all into the first cells 3.7 billion years ago. Is that correct? 
DAVID: Either pre-programmed or by later direct intervention (dabbling).-Thank you for answering these questions so directly. You go on to suggest that the inventive mechanism is only capable of minor adjustments, and even these must follow guidelines laid down by God. May I ask if Nature's Wonders (like the marvellous myrmecophilous beetle's antics), which you often describe as examples of God's intricate planning, were also preprogrammed in the first cells or part of a dabble? If not, does the IM do its own planning? -You write: “God is in control of evolution. All outcomes are within his guidelines. Major issues to make advanced life possible are planned by Him.” And you have made it clear that the plans are geared to the ultimate arrival of the human brain, which may have been preprogrammed or may be the result of a dabble. I fear that all this brings us right back to where we started, but I will try your patience just once more with two further questions. First, though, let me yet again summarize the unimaginable scope of what you are proposing: you believe that God preprogrammed the earliest cells to pass plans for the billions of innovations that led from bacteria to humans down through billions of years, billions of different organisms, billions of generations, and innumerable, possibly unplanned environmental changes, though he may sometimes have dabbled as well. You have said that this scenario creates a dilemma for you. Question 1) What exactly is this dilemma? Question 2) How does the concept of a semi-autonomous inventive mechanism in the genome resolve your dilemma?