Human evolution; theory of hominin language (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, December 16, 2018, 14:45 (2167 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Ah, it seems you have forgotten that 'different in kind' refers to the other primates we left behind and also Adler's theory which supports our assent to the top of the heap. All the animals you listed are obviously foodstuff, and not on the point of my comment, Another of your inventive neatly formed sidesteps.

dhw: I have no objections at all to your saying that we are a different species (= different in kind) from our fellow primates, just as our fellow primates are different in kind from elephants, whales and ants, and I could hardly have made it clearer that in terms of language, self-awareness and cleverness we are top of the heap. All life, including ourselves, is ultimately foodstuff. I simply object to your assumption that this means we were your God’s goal from the very beginning, and he specially designed everything else over 3+ billion years for the sole purpose of providing food until he could specially design us. This is the logical gap which you prefer to sidestep rather than bridge.

DAVID: What is logical to me is illogical to you. What you describe is what we see. All I have done is said God did it. God can do it any way He wants.

dhw: If you had only said God did it, there would be no problem. But you insist that he specifically preprogrammed or personally dabbled every innovation, econiche, lifestyle and natural wonder over 3.5+ billion years, and did so for the sole purpose of providing food until he specifically designed H. sapiens – his only goal for creating life. You can’t explain why he “chose” this method, even though he was always in full control and could have done it any way he wanted. If you can’t think of an explanation, how can you say it is logical to you? In the four theistic alternative explanations I have given you, which you acknowledge to be logical, God still did it, and in the hypothesis that I have offered, your God could still have done it by inventing the original mechanisms that propelled evolution. But you reject all these logical God-did-it possibilities in favour of the one you can't understand.