[Magic_Man]

I wasn't sure where to put this reply, so I thought I'd start a new subthread. Hopefully it gets noticed.

::Puts on Devil's Advocate hat::
A lot of the discussion in this thread has been between theists and atheists regarding whether or not God allows "chance" to happen. In general, it goes like this:

Atheists: Evolution doesn't require God, it takes care of everything with the element of chance.

Theists: Chance is not enough, and is a poor explanation.

The theists don't like the idea of God allowing random mutations to occur. But the mutations alone (genotypes) are not the only place God can exert his influence. Even given that he allows completely random mutations to occur, can't he interfere with the phenotypes? It seems to me that there are lots of places God, being omniscient, could tweak the laws of physics to achieve a desired result. A bit of chemistry here, a little bio there, vary a few physical constants, and voila, a new heirarchy arises. Similarly, God can alter the advantages/disadvantages produced by phenotypes. A few more tweaks, and suddenly partners with asymmetric faces are incredibly sexually attractive to the opposite sex. Make the climate colder, and suddenly the hairiest cavemen survive. Change the power spectrum of the sun, and suddenly chlorophyl isn't the best chemical for plants to use; their new photosynthesis uses crimsophyl, which gives them a distinct red color. Some insects sensitive to this wavelength can now find them more easily, while others wonder where dinner went.

The point is, God can interfere in many ways. I'm no biologist, but AFAIK the genotype-to-phenotype path is not well understood (in the sense that I mean here), and it would be extremely difficult to predict some of the survivorship advantages even if it were.

If God wanted to allow completely random mutations, he could easily do it. Start with the mutations, then back-create the laws of physics to give the desired result. I have no idea why he would do this, but I never figured out why he hates masturbation either. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] ::shrug::

::Removes DA hat but doesn't let it go far...::

~MagicMan