Natural Wonders & Evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, September 25, 2019, 19:32 (1668 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: You've forgotten God had intermediate goals of producing a universe that is fine-tuned for life. evolved a special Earth, created life, and finally reached His endpoint of humans.

dhw: I haven’t forgotten that according to you he specially designed billions of stars and solar systems in order to produce one solar system with one planet which would sustain life, the sole purpose of which was to specially design H. sapiens….continued above in bold.

You might well ask why God waited 13.78 billion years to produce humans. Why not do it all at once?

dhw: You do not believe that your God would give evolution free rein, and claim that this “humanizes” him, but still you refuse to say why wanting full control is not humanizing whereas not wanting full control is humanizing.

DAVID: My God is not human…

dhw: Nobody imagines that God is human.

DAVID:….and is not wishy-washy allowing organisms or invent what they want.

dhw: There is nothing wishy-washy about creating a mechanism to produce a constantly changing bush of life!

And lose His full control? That is your humanized God.

DAVID: He is in full control and fully purposeful. Of course certain of his wishes are like human wishes, but you constantly forget we cannot actually know his thoughts.

dhw: And yet you insist that you do know his thoughts: “Humans are my goal, and I have decided..." as bolded above. And STILL you do not tell us why wanting to be in full control is not human, whereas wanting to be in partial control is human.

I DO NOT KNOW His thoughts. I recognize His choice of method, but cannot know His reasons for that choice, but your humanized God seems to know.

DAVID: […] if God is the creator, what we see is what and how He created it. Thus, God evolved life.

dhw: Of course if he exists he evolved life! And all the theistic alternatives I have offered you are on that basis, and you have agreed that all of them fit life’s history. But they are logical, and you fall back on your “humanizing” mantra, as if you know your God has no human characteristics (thereby ignoring the fact that we cannot know his thoughts or his nature) and, since you have no idea why he would have chosen the purpose and method you impose on him, you entrench yourself in the firm belief that his logic must be different from and and inaccessible to all human reason and logic.

It is not entirely inaccessible, as we can make logical human guesses as you have, but that is all they ever will be, guesses. Thus I accept His choices without question.