Why is a \"designer\" so compelling? (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 16:53 (5392 days ago) @ xeno6696

Matt has opened this thread with various statements and questions, in response to the argument that life is too complex to have come about by chance. - For two reasons I doubt if you'll get many responses. One is that David is our only regular contributor who thinks a designer is "compelling". Perhaps you should have asked why "chance" is so compelling ... and perhaps you should also ask why you didn't ask that?! In my post of 12 July I challenged your statement that chance was less "unsatisfactory" than design, asked for your criteria, and asked why one should believe in an explanation one found unsatisfactory. You did not answer.*** - This leads me to the second reason, which I hesitate to mention because I don't want to cause offence. However, I would like to think that what I'm about to say may be helpful in the long run. You write: "My own posting will be limited to questions designed to reach a better understanding of your thinking...I want to collect the various arguments and see if they are based in ignorance, faith, or logic." I'm sure you don't mean to give this impression, but you sound like someone who thinks he knows all the answers, and is now testing his students. - This ties in with your last post on "Chance v Design", in which you wrote: "From your initial treatise, I really felt that you were arguing against chance from a position of ignorance. It's clear you're not, and I do hope I wasn't seen as insulting your intelligence." I appreciate the latter remark, and being asked to defend one's views is not an insult. The discussions have been informative and for the most part enjoyable. But ... and this is where I hope my comments may be useful to you ... perhaps as a possible future teacher of undergraduates and postgraduates, you might take a couple of tips from an old hand. Don't assume that your students are ignorant, and keep in mind that while you are assessing them, they are also assessing you. If, for instance, your logic comes under fire or you are asked a challenging question, it will not be enough to congratulate the student on having passed your intelligence test, and then announce that you are going to end the discussion because you're not really interested. - *** In your stimulating exchanges with David Turell under "The Difference of Man...", you have supplied part of an answer, and I will follow that up with some other points later today or tomorrow.