Innovation; Just for dhw (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 23, 2015, 17:45 (3057 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Still wearing my theist hat, I ask the same question. Why so many, and what was the point of all those that died out? You have now acknowledged the possibility that your God had to experiment in order to get to humans. Two explanations: 1) the explosion of phyla was not in aid of humans at all: they worked out their own evolution. Humans were an afterthought. 2) He wanted to create humans, didn't have a clue how to do it, and blundered through all those species which he then had to discard.
DAVID: You can conjure up all the possible God thoughts you wish. Humans are here as the pinnacle of evolution.-My focus in this discussion is on how evolution works. I repeated your own question (why so many phyla?) and also asked what was the point of all those that died out. I have offered two possible answers allowing for your theistic, anthropocentric version of evolution. Can you see any flaw in these two explanations for what you have agreed is the helter-skelter bush of animal evolution? -dhw: These discussions are invaluable to me, though. The vast range of your own knowledge, coupled with that of BBella, Tony, Matt, George and many others down through the years, has immeasurably deepened my own awareness of the mysteries of life and the universe, even if I am as far as ever from solving them! 
DAVID: Solving with absolute proof is impossible.-Yes, indeed. And one needs faith to fill in the huge gaps in both arguments, since neither science nor reason can do so. I should add, however, that science and reason may not be the best guides to “truth”, whatever that may be.