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> dhw: [i]Could it not be that different local environments require minor changes (finches’ beaks, froggy fiddles) or major changes (when whales switch from land to water), whereas major widespread environmental changes (the Cambrian) spark major innovations?[/i]
> 
> DAVID: [i]You and I will always differ on where the spark comes from. The increase in oxygen provided the energy for the complex animals of the Cambrian to appear. It did not require their appearance.[/i]
> 
> As we have agreed a thousand times, no appearance was “required” beyond that of bacteria. That is why I go beyond survival to improvement. New conditions present new opportunities, and these were provided by the increase in oxygen.
> 
> DAVID: [i]As for the hominin bush, as savannah appeared only the pre-homos bothered to come down from the trees, but 23 million years ago monkey lumbar spines were showing preparatory changes while still in the trees. It seems to me only God can provide the push to advance.[/i]
> 
> As I keep pointing out, evolution takes place in individual organisms. The emergence of one species from another does not mean the preceding species dies out. Pre-homos diverged from their ape ancestors, who stayed in the trees. That is the process of common descent we both believe in. We have no idea what lumbar-changing monkeys were up to 23 million years ago. Maybe they spent 50% of their time in the trees and 50% on the ground. Most of the changes you focus on are saltations (only God can do them), but now we have preparatory work, which clearly indicates a gradual process (and only God can do that too). If your God’s prime purpose was to produce Homo sapiens and his brain, do you really think he was incapable of doing it without millions of years of “preparatory” work?