Cosmology: Latest theories of everything (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, July 21, 2017, 16:08 (2681 days ago) @ dhw

reblak: [...] it is the separate coming into being of the living, self-reproducing primeval organisms, the hitherto unthought-of even if the primeval eye, ear, nose, lung, heart, penis, vagina, etc., that presents the problem. Darwin himself understood this, and so refrained from discussing such origins.” [...]
I (at least) am confidently aware of the natural and automatic way that Mother Nature performs these amazing acts of creativity. The simple proof of my explanation is the total absence of any other natural alternative! Chance – a mathematical concept – has little bearing on the works of Mother Nature.

dhw: I have selected this particular statement as I think it epitomizes the problem I have with your approach. As an agnostic, I cannot find a satisfactory explanation for the “amazing acts of creativity”. David attributes them to a sourceless supernatural being who consciously designs them. Most atheists I know attribute the original spark of creativity to unconscious chance. You attribute it to Mother Nature. But if Mother Nature is neither a conscious being nor chance, what is she? What do you mean by “natural and automatic”? Are you saying that life, consciousness, and the eye, ear, nose, lung etc. were the inevitable consequence of the existence of matter in which atoms combine, so they don’t need explaining? I would regard this theory as requiring just as much faith as belief in a god or in chance.

I've also asked him to explain Mother Nature, but so far he hasn't. It would clarify his positions