(December 15, 2020 at 2:14 pm)Klorophyll Wrote:
(December 15, 2020 at 2:13 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: The minute you talk about genetics you eliminate any necessity for a tinkering god.
Why can't God operate through genetics ..? : shrugs :
A tinkering God can operate in any sphere of nature. The problem is that science doesn't need to hypothesize such a being to explain reality.
If a God were required as a tinkerer to create human DNA, then the study of genetics and evolution would be wrong. Evolution states that changes happen randomly, and that environmental pressure preferentially rewards individuals with traits that better pass on genes to the next generation.
Now, a God could decide to make non-random changes, but how would you distinguish them from random ones? A God could steer evolution faster, and make it go down fewer dead-ends. A God could produce an error-free genome that has a perfect design.
Only there is no evidence of that. If there were, science would see it, and the theory of evolution by random mutation and natural selection would be declared invalid. Instead, we have all sorts of genetic errors and oddities. Our design works, but is hardly optimal. And, it took a heck of a long time for us to come to exist.
As in all fields of science -- no gods are necessary.
