Evolution and humans (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, May 24, 2015, 17:24 (3469 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Evolutionary attempts at advancement produced different types of Homo under God's guidance all probably branched from H. Erectus. I don't see why, except sapiens were the target and that was achieved. 
dhw: Here are three theistic alternatives: 1) God knew what he wanted, but couldn't work out how to do it; 2) God didn't know what he wanted, and made it up as he went along; 3) God left the inventive mechanism to do its own thing. (This would also explain the rest of the higgledy-piggledy process, including the weaverbird's nest.) Would you accept that all three hypotheses provide a rational explanation of the four groups?-DAVID: You've left out a fourth possibility: God knew exactly what He wanted, but set up competition just to be sure He had the right formula for a human species survivorship of the type He preferred. I agree with you that your three are possible scenarios. I stick with my thesis that God worked through evolution (I don't know why) to achieve our species. Mine is a third way form of creationism, as I've said all along.-Your 4) is the same as my 1), except that you're substituting the uncertainty of “just to be sure” for the uncertainty of “couldn't work out”. -With my theist hat on, I can accept the possibility of God dabbling for particular purposes, but find it impossible to reconcile dabbling and/or preprogramming with the countless innovations and organisms apparently irrelevant to the production of humans if humans were his goal. “Worked through evolution (I don't know why)” is nice and honest, but in turn I don't know why you refuse to question a hypothesis that clearly makes no sense to either of us.