philosophy of science: meaning and functions (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, October 07, 2018, 14:53 (2027 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Why should He be bored? With the ability to produces universes and living beings, He is constantly busy creating. I'll agree He may be filled with a sense of accomplishment, but boredom is your problem, not His. He does have our human feelings plus more with a sense of purpose that may well accede ours. You and I cannot imagine His mental processes beyond using our own, but He is not us as you admit.

dhw: Well, now you’ve decided that for eternity your God has been creating new universes full of who knows what kinds of life, but apparently always containing human beings, let's make the appropriate changes. I now suggest that if your hypothesis is true, and he has kept himself eternally busy with the joy of creating and watching with interest universes full of who knows what kinds of life, but apparently always containing human beings, he has done so because otherwise he would have been nothing but a great big blob of pure conscious energy with nothing to do except think about himself. And that would have been boring to a degree beyond our human imagination. Now please tell me why this hypothesis seems illogical to you.

The bolded area is again your very inventive (why not, you invent life in your plays) defense of your indefensible boredom theory. He is a purposeful creator and has no thoughts about empty boredom feelings, because He is constantly busy designing and creating. Since you persist in staying at a human analysis level in looking at God, what do humans do when bored: they practice pass-timing, which is an inventive way to make time pass as recognized by psychologists but empty of anything useful. At the God level I would think His purposeful creations fill time, but there is another consideration: as an eternal Being, time is of no consequence to Him.

dhw: Meanwhile, I don’t remember ever suggesting that an eternal and immortal mind with the power to create universes and invent life would be “us”. The significant “admission” here is yours – namely, that you believe your God may have our thoughts and feelings and logic.

Of course God understands our level of thought. You want him to operate at our level. By definition as God, He doesn't.

dhw: I should add that I have no problem with the hypothesis that either our own universe is eternal or there have been other universes before ours, as first cause energy and matter eternally re-form themselves. That is why I regard the possibility that life and consciousness might eventually have emerged from this eternal recombining of materials as no more and no less credible than a sourceless, immaterial supermind eternally keeping itself busy creating spectacles for its own enjoyment (the “joy of creation”) because, well, what else was/is there for it to do?

A re-declaration of agnosticism.