Natures Wonders- living fossils (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, November 21, 2017, 15:03 (2559 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I do not "deny" the designer or chance or the panpsychist hypothesis, but I cannot believe in any of them, since all of them defy logic in one way or another. In one post you understand my agnosticism, and in another you don’t.

DAVID: I fully understand your agnosticism. You see the need for design, but can't find a designer.

dhw: It’s not that simple. I see a conscious designer (your God), atheistic chance and atheistic panpsychism as equally unbelievable explanations. And so actual belief, as you have always acknowledged, requires faith – i.e wilfully closing one’s eyes to the great gaps in all three hypotheses. I can’t do that. Your explanation of my agnosticism is therefore too one-sided. An atheist would say: “You see the absurdity of the supernatural God hypothesis, but you can’t find a natural explanation for life.”

However, one of those hypotheses must be closer to the truth than the others, so I am horribly wrong one way or the other!

Your phrase, 'closer to the truth' is the key to your thinking. I view one of the three as THE truth. You imply there is possibly a fourth way or more and we can never know for sure, and you cannot except anything beyond absolute proof.