Divine purposes and methods (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 13, 2019, 19:59 (1924 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Human are here, but they are not His current goal? What fact are you looking for?

dhw: Firstly, you keep maintaining that humans were his goal from the very beginning (not just his “current” goal). The duckbilled platypus is also here. Does that mean it’s also his current goal? Secondly, you don’t know why he chose to spend 3.5+ billion years specially designing other unrelated life forms extant and extinct, but…

Haven't you noticed the latest arrival in the fossil record in Homo sapiens. We are the most advanced and the most complex. The platypus is certainly somewhat complex but anticeded us and is much less complex. The pattern of evolution is to advance to increasing complexity which obviously makes us the current endpoint and therefore, obviously, the currently observed goal. I don't have to know why God chose evolution as His method. It is your problem.

DAVID:The balance of nature food supply is obvious. It is His chosen method not mine. Why should I question it? I'm simply interpreting the facts that exist. I'm sorry for your confusion. Accept 'Dayenu'. He did it, and it is enough. […] It is not incomprehensible to me. […] I'm not supposed to know why He chose the method He did. Since He chose to evolve us over time, my interpretation fits the facts in history.

dhw: It is obvious that all forms of life need food, and by your admission that has nothing to do with the one and only goal of designing H. sapiens.

Humans can't arrive by evolution over 3.8 billion years without the diversity of life to supply food in the balance of nature so life can continue to evolve. Perfect logic,.

. dhw: The only facts at your disposal are that life’s history has produced millions of different life forms, and humans are the latest of these. “Since he chose to evolve us over time” = his chosen method of fulfilling his sole purpose of specially designing us was to specially design 3.5+ billion years’ worth of food….This illogical hypothesis is not a fact, but your fixed belief.

It is a logical fact to me because I start by accepting the pattern of evolution as God's choice of method. You refuse to accept that and wander all over the place ascribing human reasoning to God all made up out of thin air.

dhw: If it’s not incomprehensible to you, why can’t you explain it, and why should I accept it when there are several different, alternative hypotheses which even you accept as being logical?

I admit, at a human level they seem logical. But humanly logical alternatives do not mean God did it in the ways you wish. They are only human alternatives.