Randomness

You wrote:

But as I've previously suggested, my belief is that in this Universe there is no such thing as "true randomness".

Okay. But would you also hold to that if you steadfastly believed there was no creator being? None whatever?

* * *
You wrote:

So I assume that my example of a population that survived because it had a conscience (the golden rule gene) didn't move you at all?

That's not what I was getting at. Again, I was arguing from the position of those who hold that our existence and development was all based on genetic mutations and reproductive advantage -- natural selection, in other words. My point is that a "golden rule gene" wouldn't propagate. Selfishness is the rule.

* * *
You wrote:

The "knee in the population curve" - or the explosion - seemed to happen around 1700 AD ... I wonder what happened during that time? The combination of medicine plus travel perhaps?

Medicine, better hygiene, an improvement in the infant mortality rate in developed nations ... I would imagine that it wouldn't take much -- mathematically -- to produce the "knee." A slight percentage change here or there.

* * *
Just watching a TV show where they were chronicling the 10 ways the earth may end. One was a "rogue black hole" that wandered into our solar system. :-)