God and evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Saturday, April 01, 2017, 10:34 (2575 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Please explain how ‘limited’ still remains possible for you, while at the same time it is “totally off reservation” …
DAVID: The 'off the reservation' comment was to reject your weird idea that God had to experiment to figure out how to make humans. Never! Please review that entry. You have totally distorted the exchange.
dhw: Just to clarify this particular hypothesis: I have suggested that he wanted to make a creature similar to himself, i.e. he did not have a blueprint for humans in his mind, but experimented in order to find the right formula for a being with enhanced consciousness. If that is what your God wanted to do but because of his limitations was unable to do it, perhaps you had better explain what limitations you have in mind, remembering of course that “...any power that can produce a fine-tuned universe can then see to the creation of humans without difficulty.”

DAVID: Your thought: "he did not have a blueprint for humans in his mind, but experimented in order to find the right formula for a being with enhanced consciousness" again supports your humanized view of God. He is not limited in that way. And remember what we think of as the possibility of limits because of the delay, may not be a delay in God's mind. I repeat: God evolved the universe, evolved the Earth, and evolved organisms. The process of evolution may create the impression of delay and limits. I know limits are my suggestion in either/or, but don't forget my thought: “...any power that can produce a fine-tuned universe can then see to the creation of humans without difficulty.” If God can design a bird that can make a complex hanging nest He can make humans without experimentation!

I can hardly forget your “thought”, and I keep reminding you about it, because it leads to all the obfuscations apparent in your response. If God is unlimited, he can design whatever he wants to design. But you keep giving us an either/or: 1) he ‘delayed’ creating his sole goal because he was limited, or 2) there was no ‘delay’, because he wanted to do it that way, though we don’t know why. I have suggested that his hypothetical limitation was not knowing how to create a being like himself, which meant he had to experiment. You have rejected that limitation. If you reject the hypothesis of limitation, you no longer have an either/or. I have therefore asked you what other limitations you have in mind. Please answer, remembering of course that “...any power that can produce a fine-tuned universe can then see to the creation of humans without difficulty.”