Privileged Planet: comparing solar systems (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, February 04, 2016, 08:31 (3003 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You may as well say perhaps we will discover that God exists. Or perhaps we will discover that life can generate itself. Such “perhapses” are neither rational nor scientific. I am not second-guessing. You begin with the premise that God exists, and therefore there has to be a divine reason for everything you see. I begin with what I see, and look for reasons. The fact that I am extremely short-sighted does not mean that I should stop looking, or that there are divine reasons for me to find!-DAVID: Are you forgetting that I began my search by looking at what I see, studying the science behind it and concluded what we see requires a mind to plan it?
-No, I have not forgotten. But you have ended your search and are now seeking to justify your conclusion even in the face of factors you cannot explain. And you have added to your conclusion (that there is a God) various hypotheses that have nothing to do with your study of science: e.g. your interpretation of your God's purpose (humans), his method (preprogramming or dabbling), the extent of his power (control over billions of solar systems). Of course you have every right to draw a conclusion, as do our atheist friends, but you both have to shut one eye when you “look at what you see”. That is certainly more challenging than shutting both eyes (ugh, who cares?), and it may be more satisfying than looking with both eyes (um...which way?), but I question whether it is more rational and more scientific.