Cosmology: Earth in goldylocks zone; dangerous (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, October 30, 2017, 17:07 (2580 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: A theory is “an idea or set of ideas intended to explain something about life or the world” (Longman). If your theory can’t explain the history of the universe and evolution (but mine can), I don’t know what your theory is “consistent” with.

DAVID: My theory is consistent with a belief in God. Yours is descriptive with no cause demonstrated.

dhw: The theories we are discussing are THEISTIC […]

DAVID: Your theistic hypothesis is descriptive of history. That is what I agree to. I look at what He created and recognize that He creates by evolutionary processes. I don't have to explain why the universe is so large. It is your problem. As for the bush of life, it does exist, and balance of nature provides energy for evolution to run its course, an entirely logical answer. God evolves His purposes.

dhw: A hypothesis is not a description, it is an explanation! We both agree on the history: the bush of life exists, it resulted from evolution, life needs energy if it is to continue. In the context of this particular discussion, we are both looking for a THEISTIC explanation of this history. Your theistic explanation or, in most cases, non-explanation is that God evolves his purposes except when he doesn’t (instantaneous creation of species at the start of the Cambrian); God specially created eight stages of whale, though you don’t know why; God specially designed the weaverbird’s nest in order to keep life going until he could fulfil his prime purpose of producing the brain of H. sapiens, though life would have kept going anyway without the whale and the nest; God specially created the large universe but you don’t know why; and God’s logic is not ours. By contrast, my theistic hypothesis provides an explanation for the whole history, as you acknowledge.

Please take my word for it. I view your hypothesis as descriptive of the history we know. I explain history as I see it from god's viewpoint. Yours is a viewpoint from non-acceptance of God.

DAVID (under “mussel fiber stretching"): Natural biologic 'inventions' teach us how to invent useful products. Is evolution itself, more brilliant than we are? Perhaps it is because God is the inventor.
dhw: Evolution never invented anything. Only organisms can invent. That leaves you with a stark theistic choice: Do you think your God preprogrammed mussel fibre stretching 3.8 billion years ago (as part of his effort to keep life going till he could produce the brain of Homo sapiens), personally intervened to teach mussels how to do it, or provided them with the intelligence to work it out themselves?
DAVID: Answered above: God is the inventor.
dhw: So let’s just be clear: God personally dabbled mussel fibre stretching, or preprogrammed it 3.8 billion years ago, because without it life could not have gone on to enable him to produce the brain of Homo sapiens.

No it is a side event of an eco-niche. The whole bush of life is what is important. Why not accept that God is an inventor?