Evolution, survival and adaptation (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, September 12, 2017, 12:07 (2416 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Finch beaks are epigenetic. Whales are speciation. The two are not equivalent. You can't use beaks to explain whales. You have stretched cell intelligent responses beyond all recognition.

dhw: Epigenetic changes are heritable changes most likely caused by environmental factors. Nobody knows how speciation takes place. It is possible that the same mechanism which causes small changes also caused the unexplained large changes. Finches needed different beaks to cope with different environments. Whale legs were modified into fins for the same reason. The difference between the two is one of scale, not of basic principle. But it remains a hypothesis, as does your divine 3.8-billion-year computer programme and/or divine dabbling, all somehow geared to the production of the human brain. The advantage of my hypothesis is that it removes the physiological, philosophical and theological mess engendered by yours.

DAVID: Agree it is a matter of scale. I don't view my views as illogical. My theology is God is in charge.

Thank you for your agreement. As you have admitted you don’t understand why your God kept messing around with pre-whales, I presume your logic is that God is in charge, and therefore it’s logical that God messed around with pre-whales though you don’t know why. My sense of logic requires coherent reasoning, e.g. that whales wanted more food, entered the water to get it, and their bodies adapted stage by stage to life in the water. And your God may have given their cell communities the ability to make the necessary adjustments, as with finches and their beaks, but on a much larger scale.