philosophy of science: meaning and functions (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Sunday, September 16, 2018, 17:14 (2259 days ago) @ David Turell

DHW: I have to say I see very little difference between your concept of the “purpose of everything” and my own theistic hypothesis. Your God had had enough of his isolation, and wanted something other than himself to focus on so that he could have a fuller existence. Sort of relieving the boredom, wouldn’t you say?

TONY: That still seems a trivial summary compared to growth.

dhw: I interpret your “growth” and "development” as a fuller existence through an expansion of his experience, which could not have happened without him ending his isolation. See above. Why is that trivial?

DAVID: It is trivial in the sense that dhw persists in humanizing God as he imagines God.

dhw: Correction:Your IMAGINED God is much more serious than my imagined God. Why do you trivialize the spectacle as “fun and games”? Tony thinks God wanted to grow and develop (I ask why, and suggest that he may have been bored with his isolated existence). By creating life he will have learned what it is to love, to hate, to enjoy, to suffer, to win, to lose...none of which he would have experienced all on his own as an eternal blob of pure energy. Is this "fun and games"?

DAVID: Yes, we both imagine, because actually knowing God is not possible, since He is hidden. But the most mature way of discovering God is to look at His works, which is the Quran approach. We humans are the pinnacle of his evolutionary work, therefore a major purpose, but as Tony says below, not the entire purpose.

dhw: You criticized my hypothesis as trivializing God. You have then completely ignored my response. Why is it trivial to learn about love, hate, enjoyment, suffering etc.?

David: Why should God have to learn about emotions if He knows all to begin with? He may have created us to see how we handle those emotions since He gave us consciousness with self-awareness to reason about problems, which is consistent with your idea of 'spectacle' but a the mental level, not your 'zoo ' level.

I can't speak for the Torah, but the Bible doesn't claim God knew everything from the very beginning.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.