Unanswered questions (General)

by dhw, Tuesday, May 07, 2019, 09:26 (2025 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: It may surprise you, but I sincerely try not to have a human view of God. In my books I pointedly stress not using the Bible and its descriptions of God just for that reason.

dhw: Yes, this was an admirable trait of your books. It is your dogmatic and illogical combination of purpose and method (specially designing millions of life forms etc. in order to specially design just one) that creates the problems here, but fortunately - if I remember rightly – you did not promote this particular combination in either of your books.

DAVID: It is simple. If you viewed God's personality as I do. it would all become logical to you.

Since you “have no idea” (your own words) why he would have chosen your interpretation of his method to achieve your interpretation of his purpose, there is little point in insisting that it is logical.

DAVID: I've agreed with Adler, it is definitely not clear if God answers prayer or reacts with us in any personal way. My belief in God offers strength for me to live life properly. And I'll stick with the Adler argument, humans are so unusual as a result of evolution, they most reflect God's prime purpose.

dhw: No problem. I simply find it inconsistent that you go on and on about God’s purposefulness, and then refuse to consider different concepts of purpose to fit in with the history of life as we know it. Why is it so important for you to tell us that his purpose for producing life was to produce humans if you don’t care about his purpose for producing humans? [David’s bold]

DAVID: All your so-called "God's purposes' are giving Him imagined weak humanoid thinking on His part.

See under “Bacterial intelligence” for my detailed response to this argument.

DAVID: I don't understand the last comment of yours that I have in bold. I've never stated what you imply I've stated. Humans were His primary purpose, but He may not have a purposeful relationship with single individuals, per Adler.

It was not a comment but a question. Why is it so important for you to tell us that your God’s one and only purpose was to produce H. sapiens? What is your point? I would have thought that anyone who believed this would regard it as a mere stepping-stone to the question of WHY his God produced him – but apparently that is forbidden territory!