philosophy of science: meaning and functions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, September 23, 2018, 15:59 (2252 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: PART TWO

TONY: No, by "set us straight"you say things like;

"dhw: Ugh, we weren’t even around to admire 90+% of the wonders he created. And what a strange way to prove his existence to us. (TONY: he didn't do it my way) All he had to do was stop hiding himself behind your quantum wall. Anyway, why would he want to prove himself to us?"

dhw: Not he didn’t do it my way, but I don’t accept the logic of a God who wants to prove himself to humans by creating weird and wonderful creatures, most of which we never knew, but at the same time hides himself. You and David rightly emphasize logic in your case for design, but the moment you speculate about his purposes, logic goes out of the window. And I do not regard David's argument that God must think differently from us as a satisfactory basis for belief.

My belief is not based on God's pattern of thought. Where did that idea come from?

TONY: What I am asking is, what part of nature do you see that has no serious purpose?

dhw: I’m sure every organism has the serious purpose of its own survival, just as I am equally sure that life has gone on despite the disappearance of 90%+ of them. I have no doubt that wind, rain and sun etc. are essential to life as we know it. But I really don’t know what this has to do with your God’s purpose for creating the universe and life.

Evolution by definition must have advances and discards. How else would it advance? Can you imagine an Earth filled with every organisms still existing from day one of origin of life? Would nature be balanced in that state?

DAVID: But you always downgrade the importance of my balance of nature statements.

dhw: Originally you tried to use it to bolster your anthropocentrism. Nowadays most of your statements show the self-evident fact that if there is a change in the balance of nature, the balance of nature changes (e.g. by the effects of human interference, or the impact of natural disasters). Nothing to do with your anthropocentrism or your God’s purpose.

Balance of nature forms the Earth as well as living beings. It supports the ability to evolve from single cells to us. That is my point. We are the result of evolution.