Gaps in Evolution

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Charles_Darwin said:
Well it not a mathematical statement? In fact its not any sort of meaningful statement, but if it keeps you happy the “statement” is sound.

Its still a terrible argument for the existence of god.

*Note pascal’s wager was brought up in THIS thread as a proof of the existence of Yahweh, so we ARE talking about the existence of Yahweh. Unless of course you jumped in 3/4’s of the way through the thread and started nitpicking.
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No, it was brought up for the purposes of arguing for a God. Don’t you recall the 20 arguments that Buffalo brought up as evidence pointing to a higher being (aka God)?
 
akoso said:
I’ve read the thread, but thanks for the reminder… again. Whether it was used as proof of the existence of God or not, that was never the intention of Pascal’s wager. It was never meant to prove that God exists.
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Then i’m happy to concede the statement is sound, however i don’t agree that its a logical argument for having a belief in a god.
 
josie_L said:
No, it was brought up for the purposes of arguing for a God. Don’t you recall the 20 arguments that Buffalo brought up as evidence pointing to a higher being (aka God)?
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Ok an argument for the existence of a god, i still don’t agree that it in anyway holds water as an argument for the existence of a god.
 
josie_L said:
Are you sure it took place 10 million years ago? I’ve heard it mentioned that it was 500 million years ago (that’s a pretty big gap)? I’m pretty sure I’m correct.
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You’re right josie. Dinosaurs existed about 230 million years ago, so it was obviously older than 10 million years.
 
Charles_Darwin said:
Sorry i should have been clearer, not 10 million years ago. Over a time scale of 10 million years. Its made out to be some sort of blink of the eye event, it wasn’t.
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Scientists call it an “explosion” precisely because of the fact that there is a “sudden” (with respect to evolution it is) appearance of almost all animal phyla .
 
akoso said:
You’re right josie. Dinosaurs existed about 230 million years ago, so it was obviously older than 10 million years.
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Right. It took place over ten million years, but not ten million years ago.
 
where do you get 50% from? just because you have made two options doesnt mean theyre equally as likely.

I have a billion dollars or I dont; is there a 50% chance I am a billionaire?
 
josie_L said:
Scientists call it an “explosion” precisely because of the fact that there is a “sudden” (with respect to evolution it is) appearance of almost all animal phyla .
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Sure, but it’s not a problem of evolutionary theory? It’s easliy explained through changes in the environment, for example higher oxygen content which is required for complex multicellular life.
 
curioosbadger said:
where do you get 50% from? just because you have made two options doesnt mean theyre equally as likely.

I have a billion dollars or I dont; is there a 50% chance I am a billionaire?
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Spot on, and i have 10 heads or i don’t. So i guess there is a 50% chance i have 10 heads.
 
curioosbadger said:
where do you get 50% from? just because you have made two options doesnt mean theyre equally as likely.

I have a billion dollars or I dont; is there a 50% chance I am a billionaire?
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Why aren’t they equally as likely (in relation to God’s existence)?
 
Charles_Darwin said:
Sure, but it’s not a problem of evolutionary theory? It’s easliy explained through changes in the environment, for example higher oxygen content which is required for complex multicellular life.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that just a theory? I was pretty certain there was never any proof that this in fact happened.
 
josie_L said:
Why aren’t they equally as likely (in relation to God’s existence)?
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Why are they? By that same logic, one can say there is a 50% chance that the higher power is either the Christian God or Allah… thus reducing the 50% chance of the original question down to 25% for the Christian God.

You can do this forever. The point is none of these 50%s are based on anything. You must first prove that there is an equal chance for each one to happen. Then you can conclude there is a 50% chance. It can’t just be assumed.
 
akoso said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that just a theory? I was pretty certain there was never any proof that this in fact happened.
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A theory explains the facts. A theory in science has a very different meaning from the word theory.
 
Charles_Darwin said:
A theory explains the facts. A theory in science has a very different meaning from the word theory.
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Right. I should have said hypothesis. I haven’t heard this idea being based on much more than a hypothesis that could fit, but doesn’t have any real evidence to make it a theory.
 
akoso said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that just a theory? I was pretty certain there was never any proof that this in fact happened.
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You took the words right out of my mouth because I’ve just been reading up on the Cambrian explosion and there is thus far no consensus to explain it (including the theory of punctuated equilibrium). I wonder if this is brought up in a biology class?
 
akoso said:
Right. I should have said hypothesis. I haven’t heard this idea being based on much more than a hypothesis that could fit, but doesn’t have any real evidence to make it a theory.
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There is plenty of evidence. Here’s one such paper…

Conclusions

The results suggest that oxygen levels in the environment, and the ability of eukaryotes to extract energy from oxygen, as well as produce oxygen, were key factors in the rise of complex multicellular life. Mitochondria and organisms with more than 2–3 cell types appeared soon after the initial increase in oxygen levels at 2300 Ma. The addition of plastids at 1500 Ma, allowing eukaryotes to produce oxygen, preceded the major rise in complexity.

biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/4/2/
 
josie_L said:
You took the words right out of my mouth because I’ve just been reading up on the Cambrian explosion and there is thus far no consensus to explain it (including the theory of punctuated equilibrium). I wonder if this is brought up in a biology class?
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Stop reading up at answeringenesis 👍
 
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