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Before this gets totally off the rails, I would like to interject that if you want to have a scientific debate, you should go back and read my initial post (it is the second in the thread).

What we have now is just pontificating; the essence of science and supported theories demands testing. Unless both sides are willing to propose testable and falsifiable experiments to demonstrate their point of view which are coherent with regard to their underlying theories, it's just a bunch of hot air.

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When I say we would have faced long odds "evolving" here I'm using the term "evolve" very loosely. I mean, everything that had to come together perfectly is hard to imagine. The planet had to have perfect distance and spin and chemical composition. Life spontaneously erupting in muddy sulphuric water with an unimaginably harsh atmosphere, then reproducing and "evolving" upward to what we see today, and what we know has walked the earth in the past... the odds against all of this coming together on one single planet are just incredible. Beyond incredible... unfathomable.

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You don't even have to ask why men have nipples. (Or, I don't know, how about adenoids?) Just ask why God created retroviruses. I've never heard a cogent answer.

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There is no equilibrium in evolution.

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Yeah, I know, the earth is the center of the universe.

I'll get back in line now, tell your popes of science to put away their infernal torture devices. I'll rejoin the lemmings.

Happy?

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It's a pretty simple concept. I don't know why you're having so much trouble with it.

Picture it like this - earth is one pull on one slot machine in Vegas. One single chance to hit the "life" jackpot.

The entire universe represents every pull ever pulled on every slot machine ever made.

Where do the odds lie?

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It is true that the larger the area, the better the odds of life forming, but over the vast universe, wherever it did finally happen to develop, would that not be the very location where said life would eventually be having this conversation?

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The overwhelming proof that there is a Creator: the clitoris.

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And I am totally agreeing with you. 

Sorry if I confused the issue by responding to your post instead of Sanity's. 

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ORIGINAL: Marc2b
I’ve always considered the olive as the best evidence for a supreme being – according to evolution such yucky mistakes should have died out a long time ago.

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ORIGINAL: Marc2b

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There is no equilibrium in evolution.

I disagree. Evolution is a system (a naturally occurring system, but a system none the less) and systems do seek equilibrium. As I stated earlier equilibrium should not be confused with harmony (which puts a "sweetness and light" human connotation on it). The predator and prey analogy is a good one. If the predators kill off too many of the prey, starvation will reduce the predators numbers allowing the preys numbers to increase eventually allowing the predators numbers to increase again. It’s not harmonious (since there is a lot of painful dying involved) but it is equilibrium.

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Why would olives have died out? I've seen birds and small mammals eat uncured ripe olives which would serve to disperse the seeds quite well. Once people figured out how to make gin and vermouth the olive was of course safe for all time.