God and evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, April 03, 2017, 12:47 (2789 days ago) @ David Turell

TONY: Actually, DHW, my comment was directed at the fact that things like weaverbird nests and extinctions constantly seem to trip you up when you wear your theist hat. It is as if you cannot fathom a reason God would have created any life form if he knew in advance that it must die off at some point or that he would not gift his creations with more than the most basic of abilities.
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dhw: That is the focal point of this whole discussion. It is David who says that humans were not just the prime goal but the ONLY goal. For a change, you and I are on the same side.
TONY: We are called creatures that he was especially fond of, nothing more. But regardless, MOST life today could not have lived in the early earth, because it had not been prepared.
dhw: There is no doubt that most of today’s life could not have lived in the early earth. With my theist’s hat on, I have no idea to what extent your God actually planned the environmental changes that led to each stage of evolution (or creation), or designed the basic mechanisms and then sat back to see what would happen (though possibly intervening when he wanted to). This is the point at which I can envisage various scenarios, whereas you and David have fixed – but extremely different – ideas.
DAVID: Tony and I are very close together. You don't interpret Tony as I do. God's evolutionary processes require a series of preparations for the arrival of humans as his statements point out. Our differences come from his Biblical interpretations.

Why have you omitted Tony’s direct dismissal of your dogmatic anthropocentrism?
TONY: Humans, as the prime goal of all creation, or even of evolution, is truly just silliness, even according to science which claims everything is still evolving. If that were true, we must be in one of those periods of punctuated equilibrium.

Tony will have to tell us himself how, if he agrees with you, your God’s personal design of the weaverbird’s nest, the monarch’s lifestyle and the fly’s compound eye constituted preparation for his "sole goal", the production of humans.