D'Abrera

[John Grehan]

My responses, as an evolutionist, to questions by Pierre le Roux, for what
they are worth


>1.Why all the insistence that there is no Creator ?

If Pierre is referring to the D'Abrera discussions, I for one have made no
insistence,
or statements of any kind, about any "Creator".

- to my mind,
>Evolution as a possible tool by which Creation took place, makes
>sense and fits into place. Taking things such as  Layered Stability, etc, into
>account, it is accomodated rather too neatly by the sequence described in
>the early chapter of the Bible.

I'm agnostic about the validity of the bible or any other religeous text.
For those who
believe, and find their religious texts in accordance, I say thats fine.
For those who find
conflict, thats fine too - its up to the individual to decide.


>2. Would it be possible that we humans can be likened to a batch of
>latest-technology desktop computers trying to figure out why and how
>we were created: Surely the Creator should be exceedingly more
>complex than his creations, and our interpretations of His reasoning
>might be good approximations, but to try and paint Him out of the
>picture totally, is rather unfair?

That seems to be a statement about the ultimate nature of reality, to which
I have
no priviliged insight into one way or the other.

>
>THEN: I still want someone to tell me that EVERYTHING is functional,
>particularly in butterflies, and wasn't intended in a lot of
>instances just simply to be beautiful. Maybe I evolved to see things
>as beautiful as well?

My perspective on function is that the term "function" refers to a
statement about
the interactions (whether behavioral, physical, ecological etc.) between
(usually)
part of an organism and its biotic or abiotic environment. Wherever such a
statement
is made, a function is asserted. Whether function has some spatiotemporally
independant
existence I am not priviliged to know.

Whether there is any "intention" behind the evolution of organisms or
structures I am, again,
not prviliged to know.

John Grehan