philosophy of science: meaning and functions (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, October 01, 2018, 12:34 (2034 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: […] if God exists, we can only imagine him by looking at his works: the great higgledy-piggledy bush of life extant and extinct, including humans “in his image”, creating their own pains and pleasures. And we can only imagine his purpose: perhaps a spectacle to relieve his boredom and isolation? After all, in spite of your hero Adler, you agree that God has our thoughts and his logic is like ours.

DAVID: Neat trick. Of course God thinks and some portion of his thinking and logic mirrors ours. That is all I have given you. I view his mind as exceedingly more powerful than ours in depth of thought and overall knowledge, and I suggest you should think of His mind in that context. Perhaps then you will quit humanizing Him so severely.

It’s not a trick! If your God exists, then of course his mind and knowledge and power are infinitely greater than ours, but you are the one who constantly talks of his purposefulness, and that is what we are discussing. You quite rightly argue that we can only guess at his purpose and his nature by studying his works. That is what both of us do. You conclude that his prime purpose was to create humans so that they would “recognize” him, he could have a relationship with us (though he remains hidden), and prove himself to us. All that is “humanizing”, and in my view inadequate as an explanation of the nature and history of his works. You have never been able to find a flaw in the logic of my hypothesis, but you simply can’t stand the thought that your God – whose thinking and logic mirrors ours “in some portion” – might mirror us in ways that don’t correspond to your own humanization of him. Your God as “first cause” was by definition isolated. According to you he ended his isolation by creating the universe and life in all its many forms extant and extinct. He must have had a reason for doing so. Once more: why do you find it illogical to suggest that he might have been bored with his isolation?