[OldNavyVet]

Betty ... In post 5 you state: "This is the problem that Darwinism refuses to engage: They want, they require, that everything that exists "supervenes on the physical" — than is, on simple matter in its motions, as determined by Newtonian mechanics. And that somehow matter presumably is able to bootstrap itself into life and consciousness, via a process of random mutation and natural selection."

From DNA analysis; Steve Jones, in Darwin's Ghost (pg 284), tells us that ...

"About a thousand genes are shared by every organism, however simple or complicated. Although their common ancestor must have lived more than a billion years ago, their shared structure can still be glimpsed. It shows how the grand plan of life has been modified through the course of evolution."

[betty boop]

"About a thousand genes are shared by every organism, however simple or complicated. Although their common ancestor must have lived more than a billion years ago, their shared structure can still be glimpsed. It shows how the grand plan of life has been modified through the course of evolution."

So big deal, OldNavyVet. I read recently that humans and daffodils share some 24% of a common genetic heritage — whatever that is. But to notice as much is not to explain WHY this is so.

Darwin's theory is no help here.

Perhaps you might consider reading other than Steve Jones; assuming you really want to get a grip on this problem.

Darwin's "common ancestor" is, in my view, an anthropogenic construct and nothing more.

But if you want to talk about the "genome," I'm all ears.

You may have heard about the Human Genome Project. Evidently, it crashed and burned. But folks don't want to talk about that....