Evolution took a long time (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, February 24, 2017, 22:26 (2610 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Accepted. You simply cannot give a firm description of a personal theology out of total disbelief.

dhw: Sorry, but I don’t understand this sentence. I have neither belief nor disbelief, but am as entitled as anyone else to speculate on God’s nature (if he exists) as reflected in his creations.

I think your disbelief creates a skewed thought pattern as it relates to God and his possible intentions. Of course you have every right to speculate.

DAVID: Once life appears against all odds, humans are the most difficult to explain by chance.

dhw: “Most difficult” does not explain why your God had to design frogs’ tongues and carnivorous plants before pre-humans could switch on their brain-enlargement programme or be dabbled with. THAT is the subject of dispute here.

I keep defending balance of nature to supply food. I've simply said God guides evolution. He may have made living organisms very inventive in the forms they evolve or He may have guided them Himself. We've agreed on these possibilities when you play theist.

DAVID: It is not that God's activities make no 'sense' to me, it is that I don't understand why He chose the methods He did. I'm sure He had His reasons. Only in that way it makes no sense. That doesn't stop me from thinking God is required by the evidence.

dhw: Our disagreement here is not over the evidence for design. If you can’t understand why he chose those methods, those methods make no sense to you. On the premise that if God exists, he would have known what he was doing, I have suggested an alternative interpretation of his methods that DOES make sense: namely, that he designed a mechanism that could and did produce an ever-changing spectacle (though he may have dabbled occasionally, perhaps to produce humans).) Once again, this hypothesis has nothing to do with WHETHER God exists – it is only concerned with his methods and his intentions.

I can agree with your statement, except for the first sentence. I cannot chose for God the mechanisms He uses. I don't know why He made the choices He did, but that does not mean I don't understand the mechanics of His methods.