Cosmology: Earth in goldylocks zone; dangerous (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, November 03, 2017, 21:39 (2576 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: God has to exist. What we see is not created by chance mechanisms.

dhw: If I suggest that your God may have invented a mechanism to produce the whole bush of life, I am not suggesting that the bush of life was created by a chance mechanism!

DAVID: You are back to supporting God and denying chance. Great.

dhw: There is a mighty saltation in your thinking. You wrote: “What we see is not created by chance mechanisms.” My hypothesis is that the mechanism which has produced the bush of life is cellular intelligence, and so the bush of life is not the product of chance. My hypothesis allows for the possibility (“your God may have invented…”) that there is a God who created the mechanism of cellular intelligence. This is neither a support nor a denial of anything other than possibility.

DAVID: I agree that God might have invented such a mechanism. We've had that discussion before, but you are describing a God invented mechanism. Therefore God is still is charge and control.

dhw: Yes indeed, if God exists and invented the mechanism, then it must be a God-invented mechanism. And yes indeed he is still in charge and in control if he chooses to dabble, but otherwise the whole point of the mechanism would be to give cell communities autonomous physical control over themselves (as they adapt to or exploit the environment), just as you maintain he has given humans autonomous psychological control over themselves (free will). He sacrifices control when it suits his purposes, but may possibly also dabble when it suits his purposes.

Agreed.