Is the Theory of Evolution the Best Available Explanation For the Diversity of Life?

[Willamena]

Originally Posted by The Voice of Reason

... and the idea that an intentional effort to provide such diversity would also provide a mechanism for some of those forms of life to go extinct is (in my opinion) absurd.

Not to mention that they are all harmoniously eating each other.

[The Voice of Reason]

Originally Posted by Willamena

Not to mention that they are all harmoniously eating each other.

Good point. I would extend that to include the fact that some of the life forms enjoy hunting and killing other life forms purely for pleasure - not even as a source of sustenance.

Now who (or what) would intentionally set up such a system of "harmony"?

[Jayhawker Soule]

Originally Posted by The Voice of Reason

... and the idea that an intentional effort to provide such diversity would also provide a mechanism for some of those forms of life to go extinct is (in my opinion) absurd.

My wife and I had the very real pleasure of having dinner with Bishop Antje Jackelén and her husband. She spoke of a number of things, most notably the importance of religious literacy. Later, she gave a talk on the wonders of chaos and how at the edge of chaos one finds the most magical creativity. She spoke of appreciating and embracing the chaos ...

This was some time ago, and I am in no way doing her presentation justice. But it is true that we have a bias in favor of harmony and against "tohu va vohu". As a result, when we think of 'design' we think of the design of happy, harmonious humans populating happy, harmonious communities, and not the 'design' of a remarkably creative system capable of producing new and remarkable subsystems.

Whatever one thinks about "Intelligent Design," there is much to be said about embracing the chaos.

[Willamena]

I can see that: "harmony" in the whole dance of life and death, in the dance of construction and destruction, in the dance of wonder and horror.

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by painted wolf

no link between inverts and verts?
Never heard of Tunicates, Lancelets or Acorn Worms I take it?

Or fossils such as Haikouichthys, Myllokunmingia, or any of the other early chordates.

wa:do

Are you a vert? I'm a vert!

[Panda]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Are you a vert? I'm a vert!

Parlez vous francais?

Hmm interesting, your a green

[Gunfingers]

When i was in high school my biology teacher acknowledged a third theory for the origin of life: Extraterrestrial Origin. It's a remarkably incomplete theory as it only explains where life on earth comes from without going into how life came to be in the first place, but it is still a theory that some people go for.

That said, the answer to the OP is yes, the Theory of Evolution is the best available model and does an excellent job of explaining the world we live in, no matter how racist it is.

[camanintx]

Originally Posted by Gunfingers

That said, the answer to the OP is yes, the Theory of Evolution is the best available model and does an excellent job of explaining the world we live in, no matter how racist it is.

Does "it" refer to the Theory of Evolution or the world we live in?