[tediousdemise]

What is the actual mechanism of action here?

I assume it was an elephant coincidentally born without tusks, which then survived being poached thanks to the adaptation that was then passed on to subsequent offspring.

An impeccably timed advantageous mutation for an endangered species. We rely far too often on the word “coincidence” to describe what is clearly an unknown gene expression phenomenon, which gives me chills and seems to borderline the supernatural.

At what point to people throw in the towel and say, yup, God’s real? Or do we just keep saying these unexplainable things are coincidences since it somehow jives better with our worldview?

I never understood why people think that spirituality and science are mutually exclusive. In 2014, even the pope himself came out and said the Big Bang and evolution are real [0]. Maybe it’s part of the whole “works in mysterious ways” tidbit, if you believe that kind of stuff? Let’s try having an open mind.

[0] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pope-francis-evolution-bi...

[drewcoo]

> An impeccably timed advantageous mutation

No. An existing but uncommon mutation. Previously disadvantageous.

> At what point to people throw in the towel and say, yup, God’s real?

Well . . . Occam's razor says "not now, bub."

[tgv]

> At what point to people throw in the towel and say, yup, God’s real?

When He stops acting in mysterious and cruel ways. He could, and this is just an example, have changed the poachers' socio-economic conditions so they wouldn't kill elephants anymore. Or he could have greatly devalued the price of ivory 100 years ago. But no, God's miracle is something that evolution can explain without a hitch. There's really no evidence of a deity at work here.

Did you ever consider the possibility that God's plan is to kill the elephants, and that them loosing their tusks is actually the Devil's work?

[tediousdemise]

We have free will, and the atrocities you mention are acts of men. Why would you blame God for them?

[tgv]

Why would some god come and save a few elephants by evolution after giving man free will and knowing exactly what was going to happen? Are the socio-economic conditions in Mozambique purely man-made? What's so important about free will, anyway? Just one thing in the creation. And there isn't much support for the idea that free will was given on purpose, as a high principle, is there?

But your counter argument is just setting up for more of that "mysterious ways" babble that the clergy have been using for centuries to keep the plebs coming to church. And pay their tithes.

So, if you ask me: what does it take to accept that a particular deity is real: at least do an open, clear, undeniable miracle, not weakly undo something you've set up yourself and have let fester for too long.