By FRANS de WAAL on animal cognition (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, April 21, 2016, 13:41 (3137 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: As He fine-tuned the universe, I would think all the attributes of "Rare Earth & Privileged Planet" apply as signs of his guidance. - dhw: So God organized every environmental change throughout the history of evolution? - DAVID: In view of fine tuning, most likely watched over it. - dhw: A delightfully vague expression. Either he organized the environmental changes without which evolution could not have happened, or he didn't. - DAVID: Why do you insist on exactitude. We have made inferences based on what we know and see. God is hidden. His motives are hidden. Only the conclusion that it takes a mind to do the designs has strength. - I agree with your last observation. But you do not stop there, and my insistence is a response to your insistence. Here are the exactitudes you insist on: God's intention in creating the universe and life was to produce and/or feed humans; organisms are incapable of organizing their own innovations, lifestyles and natural wonders, and so he had to “guide” them all; therefore all of them, extant and extinct, must have been preprogrammed or “guided” by God for the purpose of providing for humans. If you insist that God "guided" evolution, why is it wrong to ask whether he also "guided" the environmental conditions without which evolution could not have taken place?