It started happening with the first life; it's been happening ever since. If you mean why did it take billions of years for humans to evolve from the simplest organisms, then there are a few ideas about that. The first multicellular organisms didn't appear until about 500 million years ago. It apparently took the majority of the time that life has been on earth, for it to gain even that level of complexity. From there, who knows? Mammals were around at the time of the dinosaurs but they were more or less unchanged for millions of years, presumably because the dinosaurs were such a danger. Once they became extinct, many new forms of life appeared and evolution occurred quite rapidly. This is often the case when a new environmental niche appears.


We'd be talking about beneficial mutations -- which have been documented to occur -- and natural selection for them. And yes, over time it is theoretically possible for a dog to become more cat-like or vice-versa, depending on what is more advantageous in the environment.


What is the fossil record then? Or are you again claiming that we cannot learn about the past from evidence we have in the present? (Which would make things like forensic investigations rather difficult.)


Well we're talking religion here, rather than science. But what I believe is that the transcendent is all around us. There's a lot about reality that we don't understand yet. Different dimensions, or planes of existence. Morphic fields maybe. Different kinds of entities. But this is all wrapped up with life, it's inseparable. Personally I don't look for a personified God in the sky who tells me what to do. I hope to connect with the chi that is in everything and everyone.

You can see why I liked Star Wars, LOL.