Questioning Evolution

[Guest]

I've read several times the Cambrian period was not a specific point but a range like 530-570 mil yrs ago

The only place I've seen the dates of 530-570Mya for the Cambrian era is in the PBS documentary on the Cambrian explosion. Every paleontological article I've read, especially since 1998, cites dates of 545 - 495 Mya as the period for the Cambrian era.

but the point of the matter is that 571 mil yrs ago is not nearly enough time for macro-evolution

Why not?

[Guest]

In terms of this topic which is macro-evolution "gradual" is generally accepted to mean billions of years. Therefore 550 mil years simply is not enough time and that is the reason the theory of puntuated equilibrium developed.

Macro-evolution does not have a "billions of years" context for gradual. I have no idea where you get that idea. Saying it's generally accepted does not make it so.

Punctuated equilibrium was not developed because "550my" is not enough time. It was developed because of the stoccatic fossil record. I might add that there is more than two theories regarding the rates of evolution.

Really, i don't see how because either creation is directed or undirected and if undirected then random chance is is plainly stating in laymen's terms what atheists believe.

Directed processes does not mean that it is intelligently guided.

[Guest]

Say I have a thousand square peices of cloth about the size of a card in a deck of cards, 50 of them are white stars, 50 are blue, 400 are white, and 400 are red. Say I were to fly in a sky-diving airplane and drop all of them out of the plane, and it happened to form the american flag when it hit the ground. Would are the possibilities that this could happen "naturally" without intelligent guidance?

[Guest]

Would are the possibilities that this could happen "naturally" without intelligent guidance?

I have no idea, probably slim.

Let's say I have a random number generator that generates a number that is 10^10^29 digits long. I use it to generate a single number. The chances that number would come up is 1 in 10^10^29, but it happened.

[Guest]

Directed processes does not mean that it is intelligently guided.



Call me crazy, but i would have thought something that is "directed" must be being directed by a Directer.
Even you're gonna respond and call the "directed process" some law of the universe
then even the law has direction and structure which are signs of an ordered process.
And order does not flow naturally from disorder, it takes a greater power.

[Guest]

Punctuated equilibrium was not developed because "550my" is not enough time. It was developed because of the stoccatic fossil record. I might add that there is more than two theories regarding the rates of evolution.

PE was a deduction based on the conspicous lack of fossil evidence for macro-evolution.

[Guest]

Call me crazy, but i would have thought something that is "directed" must be being directed by a Directer.

A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn't a square.

Anything that has a director is directed, but not all things that are directed have directors, in the sense that you put it.

Why? A river is directed, there's no director. Physical processes determine where a river goes.

Random processes would indicate no pattern or reason as to why something happened.

Physical laws determine how the universe behaves macroscopically. That's why we can make predictions about how phenomena occur and when.

Even you're gonna respond and call the "directed process" some law of the universe then even the law has direction and structure which are signs of an ordered process.

The physical laws are the foundations of direction and structure. That's why the universe is the way it is, because of these laws.

And order does not flow naturally from disorder, it takes a greater power.

Meaningless mumbo-jumbo. If the universe has been in a constant state of increasing entropy since the Big Bang event, then it is not going into a state of net order, it is increasingly becoming less ordered as time goes by.

[Guest]

PE was a deduction based on the conspicous lack of fossil evidence for macro-evolution.

PE only theorizes the rate of evolution in a species time on Earth, with periods of stagnancy coupled by periods of heightened evolution, depending on environmental pressures and the size of the population. The larger and more stable a population, the less it will evolve, because the selective pressures are fewer. Smaller, less stable populations will evolve faster because the selectrive pressures are more intense.

Funny how the major extinction events, causing a bottlenecking of species, results in a flourishing of new life and new change as the environment changes.

[Guest]

The physical laws are the foundations of direction and structure. That's why the universe is the way it is, because of these laws.


Laws don't just happen out of thin air. They are structured ,organized processes that are predictable and have patterns and designs. These laws are the fingerprints of God.

Quote:

And order does not flow naturally from disorder, it takes a greater power.


Meaningless mumbo-jumbo. If the universe has been in a constant state of increasing entropy since the Big Bang event, then it is not going into a state of net order, it is increasingly becoming less ordered as time goes by.


There is breathtaking order in the universe and it does not flow out of disorder.
To say this is mumbo jumbo is just a way to avoid the obvious and only conclusion, which is God is large and in charge.

[Guest]

Laws don't just happen out of thin air. They are structured ,organized processes that are predictable and have patterns and designs.

Except when you get to those tricky quantum levels.

How these forces came about is a good question, but appealing to God is no more useful than appealing to my cat.

Laws are descriptions of how we observe the universe to work. So yes, they happened out of thin air, written down by the minds behind these discoveries. The forces themselves arose from a unified state in the Big Bang. Again, a transition of disorder arising from the highest and densest state of order.

These laws are the fingerprints of God.

Begging the question.

There is breathtaking order in the universe and it does not flow out of disorder.

You didn't even read what I said.

To say this is mumbo jumbo is just a way to avoid the obvious and only conclusion, which is God is large and in charge.

Which of course, is why the universe is in a state of increasing disorder with every second that goes by.