Genome complexity: mechanism stopped evolving (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, May 09, 2016, 13:18 (2899 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Once again you are switching the argument from evolution (Chapter 2) to origins (Chapter 1). Even bacteria have DNA. You quote me and then ignore my quote: “The starting point may have been managed by your God.” The disagreement between us concerns whether your God planned every step of evolution, or left his invention to pursue its own course.-DAVID: Sorry, but you cannot ignore origin is a continuum to life now. You like your discontinuity, because it allows you to separate arguments into parts when they are not separate. You don't accept God started life, but are willing to entertain it is a possibility. You don't accept humans as a desired conclusion. I do. We are still debating across a large gulf.-If I accept the possibility of your God starting life and evolution, I can hardly be accused of ignoring origins. I'm afraid I can't see discontinuity in my arguments (though that is the very fault I find with your own, as you struggle to link your anthropocentrism to the rest of evolution's history). Here are the facts as we know them: life started, vast numbers of organisms evolved through vast numbers of innovations, most died out but humans are here, along with the duck-billed platypus, the weaverbird's nest, and my dear friends the ants. There are various ways in which these facts can be linked in a pattern. You have offered one, and I have offered an alternative which seems to me to bind all these sections together.-Under “Cosmologic Philosophy” (thank you again) you quote the following:
"Perhaps it isn't possible for the intellect to overcome a sense of the arbitrariness of things. We are close here to the old philosophical riddle, of why there is something rather than nothing. That's a mystery into which perhaps no light can penetrate."
Your comment: Note, no explanation for why things are the way they are.-Exactly. We can only speculate, draw our different patterns, and see how far they do or do not fit the facts as we observe them. I point out the gaps in yours, and you point out the gaps in mine. New facts are coming to light all the time - and you do a fantastic job in keeping us informed of them. It seems that the more facts we learn, the less clear the overall picture becomes, but on we go. Endlessly fascinating…and a tribute to the indomitability of the human spirit.