Darwin & Wallace (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, October 05, 2015, 12:44 (3335 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I find that the explanations offered by atheistic Darwinism as epitomised by Richard Dawkins, and theistic evolutionary anthropocentrism as epitomised by David Turell, are full of huge gaps which I try to point out. 
DAVID: These are gaps you create by your analysis. Why do I have to explain how God did it? We see common descent and we see the pinnacle of evolution as complex humans. We also see the challenges of nature do not require humans. For me it is an easy jump to presume that God guided evolution to create humans, and not worry why the weaver bird nest is so complex.-The challenges of nature do not require the weaverbird's nest either, and you have said that it is too complex for the bird to have designed. It had to be “guided” by your God. You use this simple example to argue against the alternative concept of organisms other than humans and, to a lesser degree, their fellow animals having an autonomous intelligence of their own. If I then ask why God would specifically guide the weaverbird when his intention was to produce humans, I don't think I am "creating" a gap. However, perhaps I am opening a can of worms for your hypothesis. If the nest is not relevant to the production of humans, might it not mean that your God did indeed give organisms the wherewithal to do their own designing? If so, and you add that to your view that God did not control the environment, evolution will begin to look more and more like a free-for-all than the planned or “guided” process you have made it out to be. The gaps in your hypothesis create space for mine.-dhw: The only purpose you have offered me so far is the production of humans...... Perhaps it might help if you told us what you think was God's purpose in producing humans.
DAVID: Simple. God is sentient. He wanted sentient beings to converse with, to relate to Him. As you do, I can imagine God's wishes. I really doubt He did his out of boredom.-Loneliness, then? Need for love? I'm not sure how the conversation (though we can hardly converse with him as equals) is meant to work when according to you he deliberately keeps himself hidden, but it is true that many people think they are in contact with him. The consequences of this assumed contact vary from comfort and good deeds to mass murder, but that may be attributed to our autonomous intelligence. The dichotomy is strangely reflected in Nature, where at even the lowest levels of life we find a mixture of cooperation and competition, construction and destruction, survival and extinction...But you would have us believe that humans are different: only humans have the autonomous intelligence to pursue these choices as they wish, whereas God “guides” other organisms to go one way or the other.