ABEL\'S UNIVERSE (General)

by dhw, Friday, November 18, 2011, 14:53 (4564 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Dhw: Now to my theological point. No matter whether you believe in Abel’s ET gods, David’s UI, Tony’s God, or George’s Chance, the evolutionary process – guided or unguided – led eventually to predators and then to humans. The need to kill or die, a pretty extreme form of self-interest, was therefore present long before us humans, although as any vegetarian will tell you, flesh-eating is not essential for survival. It was, however, deliberately introduced by the creator(s), unless the latter didn’t know what they were doing. In other words, self-interest as the key to survival was already established before we came on the scene, and if you believe as I do that self-interest is the root of evil (I’m open to other suggestions, of course), you are confronted with the question of why any creator(s) would invent predation in the first place. If Abel’s theory is correct, and predatory self-interest is an essential precondition for greater intelligence, what does that tell us about the nature of the astonishingly intelligent being(s) that created us?

ABEL: To understand life, you must understand the concept of equilibrium. Life and death is part of this equilibrium as the suffering that is part of existence. They are not wanted, they are needed to balance an equation.

ABEL: A good example of what happens when you introduce a species into an environment where it has no predators is Australia and its rabbit problem.

There was me, kidding myself that I was raising an important theological issue concerning the origin of evil and the nature of god(s), and what follows? Abel and Tony start rabbiting on about the introduction of bunnies into Australia. This is what comes of not sticking to the subject. (Shame on you, Tony, for allowing yourself to be sidetracked.) Of course life and Nature are based on the concept of equilibrium, but you don’t need predation for equilibrium, for suffering, or for death. (Thank you, Tony, for proving the point.) Abel, in your history of evolution you drew attention to the fact that on Planet X, it was the spontaneous arrival of predation that advanced intelligence, leading ultimately to the spontaneous evolution of your super-intelligent gods. Earlier life on Planet X must have survived perfectly well without predation, just as it did here on Planet Earth, and besides if they’d really wanted to, I’m sure your superintelligent gods could have engineered faster growing plants and slower breeding herbivores. Predation on Earth is the invention of god(s) or of godless Nature. Since you do not believe in godless Nature on Planet Earth, (although you do believe in it on Planet X), what does the invention of predatory self-interest – in my view, the basis of evil – tell us about the nature of your god(s)? Let me start you off with a simpler question which should elicit a direct answer: are your gods meat-eaters or vegetarians?

Non-Abellian theologians are, of course, welcome to join in the discussion.