Unanswered questions (General)

by dhw, Thursday, June 06, 2019, 08:53 (1996 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: You simply refuse to see that if God controlled evolution from the start of life until He reached the evolution of humans, He designed everything that came first. That is my belief.

dhw: I know your belief. And you simply refuse to acknowledge the fact that you yourself “have no idea” why he chose to design millions of non-human life forms, econiches, lifestyles and natural wonders when according to you the only thing he wanted to (and did) specially design was H. sapiens! The implication of this illogical combination of beliefs is that at least one of them is wrong.

DAVID: I don't know why God chose to evolve bacteria to eventually produce humans. But that means He had to do exactly what you are objecting to […]

It doesn’t mean he “had to do” what you believe he did! It means you can’t think of any logical reason for your beliefs!

dhw: So do please explain why your God specially designed the salmon’s migratory reproduction system when according to you all he really wanted to design was the brain of H. sapiens.

DAVID: He evolved everything.

Which according to you means he specially designed everything. So please give me the explanation I have asked for.

DAVID: Why can't you accept the idea that God chose to evolve everything on the way to producing us?

If you can’t explain why he specially designed the salmon’s migratory reproduction system in order to produce us, why should I accept it? Why can’t you accept the idea that your God might have chosen to design it because he enjoyed designing, or that he designed an autonomous inventive mechanism (cellular intelligence) to provide an ever changing bush of life (including the salmon’s migratory reproduction system), the latest product of which is us?

DAVID: Our specialness is way more special than all the other different forms. That is Adler's point.

dhw: I’m concerned with your beliefs, not Adler’s. Now you seem to be saying God specially designed us to be extra special, and so he specially designed all the less special special things for the sole purpose of specially designing us! It’s still illogical.

DAVID: Only to you.

Since you have no idea why he chose to specially design us by specially designing all the other special-but-less-special-than-us life forms, I don’t know how you can tell us you find it logical.

DAVID: Same narrow view: I believe God had to do what He did if He chose to evolve us from the first cells. I'm simply looking at the known history of evolution. I simply accept God's choice of method of creation. I don't need to know 'why' He made that choice.

dhw: It is not God’s choice that I am querying, but your interpretation of his choice. For those who believe in God and evolution, history shows that his choice of method (evolution) produced a vast bush of life forms, the latest of which is H. sapiens. It does not show that he chose to specially design the vast bush for the sole purpose of specially designing H. sapiens!

DAVID: Again my point is our specialness and Adler's explanation. You quote Shapiro to support your views. I use my experts.

Does Adler really support your view that your God specially designed every special life form, and that he did so in order to make them eat or not one another until he specially designed us?