Biological complexity: misfolded protein problems (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, September 12, 2017, 15:25 (2629 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Under my discussions of theodicy in my first book I made exactly your point. God knew the universe and the Earth He created had dangerous aspects. He gave us a brain to try to solve those problems. But I don't think the high speed movements and reactions of biochemical molecules, as independent operatives, can be expected to be error free. That is why corrective cleanup measures were designed on top of the reproductive systems. To do the perfect system you desire, God has to be in personal control of each molecule. I doubt He is. He did not produce a fallible system purposely. He gave us our brain to attempt solutions for errors, and we are now manipulating the genome.

dhw: So did God deliberately create a dangerous universe so that humans could solve the problems? Or was he incapable of producing a universe that wasn’t dangerous? If it’s the former, he did produce a fallible system purposely. If it’s the latter, he is not in full control.

We've visited this before. I believe God created the best life-creating universe He could. A much more benign universe might not have been capable of supporting life. For example, exploding stars scattered the proper newly formed elements around the universe. Plate tectonics on earth cause earthquakes but are shown to be vital for life on Earth. I've just touched on hundreds of examples of this approach to what or how God did it.