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What 'evolution' are you talking about?
There really is only one ToE...
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Yes, there is "gobs of evidence" for variation (changes) in organisms.
... and that is it!
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But evidence for the earth's entire biota having a common, goo-like ancestor?
One step at a time. Start with a population of animals and note that with each generation the genes of the individuals vary slightly. Then note that more distantly related individuals have more variation between their genes. This gives you a mechanism by which you can determine the relationships between organisms even if you haven't observed them actually banging their various gongs. Couple this with timelines established via observations of mutation rates and you have a timeline of life on earth. Now, take the indisputable ( I hope ) observation that genes effect the way the body-- most notably for our purposes, the skeleton-- looks and you have a means of corroborating and expanding the above timeline and relationship chart.
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Seems to me like this "new character" has been around for a long time.
All but the last bit is not evolution. Only creationists insist on calling this whole sequence the "evolutionary paradigm." When you accept the idea of gravity, as I assume you do, do you also accept the "gravitational paradigm" which includes relativity which in turn implies the Big Bang? This tactic does nothing but muddy the water. It is diversionary.
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Not a materialist?
Yes, and neither is any modern physicist unless you redefine "materialism" to account for the weird happening of quantum physics and matter/energy equivalencies. But this redefinition would be preposterous to the folks who traditionally went by the title of materialist.
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So, are you a theistic evolutionist, a progressive evolutionist, or some other?
I just happen to think evolution fits the data best.
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Typical - ridicule that which is not understood.
Typical-- cry foul and avoid the issue. Does one need an intellectually defensible position against an absurd idea?
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There are many intelligent, well educated individuals
Appeal to authority.
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that not only defend creationism intellectually
... attempt to defend creationism intellectually.
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They say creationism is defensible. You say it isn't. Now what?
Where is that defense? I've been looking for it for quite some time.
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BTW, the answer to "why does God allow suffering?" is available to anyone that wants to listen.
So you avoid the issue by stating that there is a answer but you aren't going to share it?
The point, btw, is that there does not have to be an answer to every question. That is, we don't have everything figured out. This doesn't invalidate what we do have, tentatively, figured out.
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Dear John, it is thee that has missed the point.We can only go by what we do have - I totally agree. But then it becomes necessary to fill in whatever gaps we have in our knowledge.quote]
This is where we part. You appear content to just make up something to shove into those gaps. I am not so content. I'd like to have some REASON to place one item rather than another into the various gaps.
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Now, just how is it that these gaps are filled?
With inferences from evidence, not with whatever-you-want-to-make-up.
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Aside from fanciful/wishful theories and unrealistic experiments (e.g., Stanley Miller), there is nothing that tells us how evolution could have gotten its start.
Discounting experiment does not help your case.
Abiogenesis is an unsolved puzzled. We don't know in detail how a lot of things work. That is why there are scientists. Does, in other arenas, an unanswered question throw doubt on the whole field?
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And so people like yourself are forced to say, "Well, we don't know how it got started but it did."
This isn't science, it's metaphysics.
Metaphysics????? It is common sense. It obviously did get started or we wouldn't be here. Or do you deny that animals reproduce and pass along altered DNA each time?
The difference is that you want to say that God started it, and this without evidence-- so far at least. I would rather wait for some REASON to believe one story over another. And in the meantime, restrict myself to reasoning from the evidence we have.
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