Purpose and design (Evolution)

by dhw, Saturday, April 08, 2017, 13:03 (2784 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Tony: The balance is also between a is and order. If the structure is too rigid, there is no variation and it stagnates, if it is too chaotic, it all falls apart and self-destructs.

I don’t understand “a is”. However, I accept what you say about structure, and if God set it all up, then clearly he set it up to allow for variation. Eventually, we are told, it will indeed fall apart and self-destruct – even solar systems have a limited life. Meanwhile, the system allows for continual falling apart and self-destruction on a micro-level (99% of species are extinct), but life goes on as long as life goes on, regardless of what form it takes.

TONY: I just recalled the the Hebrew word Bara, who's is most often translated "created" literally translates to fill, or more specifically "to fatten". In the context of evolution, this could imply a "fattening" or a "filling out" of an existing system or framework. If God fattened the biological system in stages, it would have two implications. First is that hated equilibrium makes sense. Second is that macro-evolution can only occur with outside intervention, but that, if properly guided, it could happen.

“Hated” equilibrium? Presumably a misprint, but I can’t work out what it’s meant to be. If your God created a framework within which organisms used their (God-given?) intelligence to work out their own ways of coping with (adaptation) or exploiting (innovation) ever changing conditions, why would he need to intervene?

David wants to know if you think God is in control. If God exists, I myself have no doubt that the system we have is the system he wants. The question then would be the extent to which he gives organisms the ability and freedom to control their own way of life: that applies just as much to their coping with or exploiting the environment as to humans choosing whether to be nice or nasty to one another.