Neanderthal research about interbreeding and migration (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, June 29, 2019, 10:30 (1974 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Usual problem: please explain why a God who specially designs whatever he wants to specially design might have found it necessary to specially design all kinds of hominins and homos before specially designing the only homo he wanted. You have admitted in the past that you have “no idea”, but perhaps you have now worked out an answer.

NB I accept the history – all these beings evolved. But even if I were to accept your fixed belief that your God’s only purpose was to create H.sapiens, I would argue (one of my logical hypotheses) that all the different hominins and homos suggest experimentation, as opposed to a God who knew exactly what he wanted and was in total control. And there is nothing “weak” or “confused” about knowing what you want and experimenting in order to get it.

DAVID: A God who has to experiment is obviously weak.

dhw: If you think that your first cause God is “weak” because he doesn’t know in advance every single detail of something that has never existed before, then so be it.

DAVID: That is not what I wrote. You want Him to use experimentation. My God knows exactly what He wants and has no need for experimentation.

I challenged the argument that experimentation denotes weakness. I don’t “want” him to do anything. I offer experimentation as just one hypothesis to explain why he might have designed all those millions of non-human life forms. I shan’t list my various alternative hypotheses, the logic of which you have repeatedly acknowledged. Your authoritative statement above (he knows exactly what he wants) fits in perfectly with the hypothesis that what he wanted was an autonomous mechanism to produce the higgledy-piggledy bush of comings and goings, with millions of different life forms, lifestyles and natural wonders – totally unrelated to humans - that constitute the wondrously colourful and unpredictable history of life. That also allows for the odd dabble if he felt like it.