randman writes:
One explanation for this non-Darwinian pattern, imo, could be that the purpose for each stage was met or spent, and so the process is in some sense constrained or prescribed within parameters.
There is nothing Darwinian about expecting history to repeat itself under different circumstances. It is you, a non-Darwinist, who expects that, apparently. Then, when you don't see this bizarre occurrence taking place, you take it as evidence of teleology. The pattern of the history of life on earth is very Darwinian. You get the predicted nested hierarchies.
Evolution is about change, not about history repeating itself.
randman writes:
In other words, if common descent is true, and we rewound the clock, it is very likely it would turn out exactly or at least very similar to the way it did. That is, imo, evidence of purpose.
If you started out with the universe exactly as it was 500 million tears ago, and you got that result, it would be evidence of cause and effect, or inevitability, not purpose.
What you're really doing here, and on other threads, is giving us plenty of evidence of your desire for purpose.
That's an understandable desire, and one shared by many. But I think you're desperately cheating in order to convince either yourself or others or both of this evidence.
As for the O.P., and what teleology would look like, it's possible that if we're talking about intent and intelligence that isn't biological, we might not be able to recognize it, especially as we have no idea of its purpose. It could be staring us in the face, but just look like nature to us.
The intelligence concerned could have a taste for universes that can do processes like abiogenesis and biological evolution by mutation and natural selection.
Now, there's a God that could exist.