The immensity of the universe (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Friday, October 23, 2015, 13:51 (3318 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: It is the sheer immensity of the universe and the apparently impersonal process of materials forever appearing and disappearing that makes the concept of a single “universal mind" so difficult to accept. Do you truly believe there is a mind “within and without” the explosive destruction of a vast solar system 570 light years away - let alone a mind that created it all in order to produce humans?-DAVID: Simple answer: as a playwright you created whole worlds of entertainment from your brain. Why can't God use his mind to make the universe? Further, if you have followed my thoughts, He uses any evolutionary process to create the ever complex universe, and like animal evolution, things live and things die, like that solar system. Our system will die also in 5 billion years, but we are here now, and perhaps other human civilizations will appear elsewhere in the vastness, after we are gone.-In some respects, I like the playwright image. Your God creating a world for his entertainment might fit in nicely, and so might your concept of the creator being both inside and outside his work. Also, as many playwrights will tell you, we often start with an idea but the characters themselves rapidly take over and develop their own story. However, there the various possible analogies end. We know the intelligent playwright exists/existed because we have the meaningful script, but (here comes the monkey on a typewriter reversing its common usage) if the universe is the script, we have what appear to be zillions and zillions of pages apparently consisting of erjkghlp[erJdc lp[ghq w0wlpj Hp[e]1[fhefjisdfg7y pdfgopnp9tygw3lazjkclifevopagfsKlakf[p[hk8dp[adjk!dutos with just one combination of letters that happens to make sense. You can't even decide whether your God controls the Earth's environment, let alone the billions of stars and solar systems endlessly coming and going: one estimate is that there are 100,000,000,000 galaxies in our universe, with maybe the same number of solar systems in each galaxy. BILLIONS of them, covering who knows how many million light years, with planet Earth barely even a grain of sand, but all of this is contained within one mind which is inside and outside every part of it, and it's all purpose driven, all for humans? -But that is my atheist self talking. On the other hand....well, we don't need to tell each other the theist case for the design of life or for experiences that defy material explanation. He who looks for sense will end up on the fence...