Evolution (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, May 22, 2009, 02:07 (5460 days ago) @ dhw

You also think it doesn't intervene, in which case it must have set up the initial DNA/RNA codes of production, adaptation and mutation, and since then has sat back and watched evolution take its own course. - I don't know whether it completely sits back but I think from scientific evidence 'it' set up DNA/RNA as you describe.
 
> If you combine conscious creation of life, non-intervention, continued presence, billions of changes, interest in what it has created, and "freedom of choice", wouldn't you say the whole thing amounts to an experiment? - I don't know if the agent is experimenting. I don't know what is on its 'mind'. And there is no way of our ever knowing. Religions make up stories, just as Darwinists may up fanciful tales to cover their ignorance.
 
> The presence of an author/audience, however, raises the problem of its nature and, in particular, its attitude towards the suffering of its creatures down through the history of life. But perhaps you have a different answer to my question: what is it interested in? - Again, I have no answer, which is why I leave the 'agent's' personality out of the equation. However, soft-hearted as you are, the suffering is due to sex. The history of evolution is 3 billion year period of binary fission in one-celled animals and plants. Sex rears its ugly head less than 600 mllion years ago with the Cambrian Explosion, and sex requires death of the sexual organisms while helping the diversity of forms in evolutionary organisms. Red of tooth and claw, per Darwin. Animals have to eat to survive. We would not be here as humans unless that process with sex and death were not put into play. In this methodology sex and suffering are required. I can simply observe this process. I do not know if a different method is available, or if it would be better from an ethical standpoint. I'm not sure evolution is unethical. - I don't know what interests the agent. We are back to personality. I don't think we have to know as I have stated before. You have a great yearning for an agent with a loving personality. Religions make that up, right or wrong. Most humans have that same yearning, which is why religiosity is so strong. For some reason I can live with what I've gotten so far by my studies, because I think there is a connection. My mind (consciousness) is a small part of the agent's universal mind. I am comforted by that thought, And I do talk to God in my own way.