@chango70 said:
How does polyphyletic evolution undermine that there is no need for intelligent creator/creators?
Polyphyletic evolution asserts many different biogenesis events that led to the different types (kingdoms, phyla, classes, orders, families) with microevolution providing the variety within the families. This is more in line with creation (God created many different types that all had the capacity for variety within their kind) than is monophyletic evolution, the main difference being the origins of the initial life forms. But since neither polyphyletic nor monophyletic evolution deal with the origins of life, just what happened after life arose, there is still a need for an explanation of the origins of life - something too complex, in my view, to not have been intentional and designed.
@unknownuser said:
According to standard evolutionary theory, all organisms derive from a single ancestral species. Darwin's famous book is noted for having only one illustration — the familiar monophyletic evolutionary tree, showing all living organisms linked to a single ancestor. The structure of this tree shows diversity first increasing at low taxonomic categories, eventually building to diversity at higher taxonomic categories. Evolutionarily speaking, this pattern seems inevitable — small changes add up, eventually producing new species, then new genera, families, orders, etc. Unfortunately for the theory, this description is the opposite of the actual pattern in the rocks. The greatest morphological differences appear in the lower Phanerozoic rocks, while the rest of the fossil record consists largely of variations of familiar themes.
@unknownuser said:
Do I believe there are more than 8 notes in a scale. Yes I do. But within the set of parameters as defined by the 8 notes there seem to be endless compositions...so one could be fooled into looking/listening no further.
Being a musician, I appreciate a music analogy. Given there are 8 notes in a standard major scale, I understand how you might think that being stuck in one key would be a "static condition" despite the seemingly "endless compositions" - and yet, DNA has only 4 elements. Is that not itself, then, a static condition? And yet whole symphonies of species are written with those four elements.
There are 12 notes in a chromatic scale in western music. A major scale uses 8 of those 12 in a particular interval pattern. A natural minor scale also uses 8 of 12, but 3 are different, and there is a different interval pattern. A harmonic minor likewise uses 8 of 12, but 3 are different from the major, and one is different from the natural minor. Then there's the melodic minor scale, which has only one note different from a major scale when ascending, and is the same as the natural minor scale when descending. A chromatic scale uses all 12 notes. Then there are modal scales, but that's just too much...
The point? Good question! 
The point is that (traditionally) a composer selects one key as the basis of a composition, and structures the composition based on the type of music being written and on the style (baroque, classical, romantic, etc). For example, a rondo has a different structure than a sonata or minuet. A symphony is distinct from a concerto, an opera, or a cantata. The styles (or "periods", thinking historically) are like higher orders, the composers and types are like lower orders, and the individual works are like the various species - they can be grouped by like parameters.
Baroque : Bach : Concertos : Brandenburg #3 in G Major
Baroque : Bach : Toccatas & Fugues : d minor
Classical : Mozart : Symphonies : #40 in G minor
Romantic : Brahms : Symphonies : #1 in c minor
Granted, it's not a perfect analogy (keys are independent of types and styles, though the 12 tones are constant throughout western music from the late Renaissance to the late 19th century), but it is fun.
Anyway, need to get back to Windowizer...
