David's theory of evolution Part Two (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, January 09, 2020, 19:34 (1778 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: But you can’t explain why, if that was his only purpose, he spent 3.X billion years evolving billions of non-human life forms, natural wonders etc. to fill in the time he had decided to take before starting to “evolve” humans (and by “evolve” you mean specially design every little twiddly bit that led from pre-humans to H. sapiens).

DAVID: But you can't explain it either.

dhw: Of course I can’t explain it if you insist that your God is always in charge and knows exactly how to get what he wants! That’s why I suggest that one or more of your assumptions might be wrong!

On the basis of imagining human alternatives your refusal to accept the idea God chose to evolve us as he chose to evolve the universe and the Earth, then create life and evolve us as His works in history show us. Totally logical.

DAVID: My logic taken from the history of His works is that He chose to evolve us, for reasons known only to Him. Only you don't like that reasoning, since you have an overwhelming desire to dig into his mind for reasons! Why? They will be guesses and in your case humanizing guesses.

dhw: But the history of his works shows that if he exists he chose to evolve billions of non-human life forms, econiches, strategies, lifestyles, natural wonders etc. extant and extinct. And you insist that his reason for doing so was to fill in the time until he designed the only organism he wanted to design! Please stop pretending that your interpretation of his purpose and interim purposes is not an attempt to dig into his mind for reasons! And please stop pretending that you know your God cannot possibly have any attributes in common with humans, even though you say he “very well could think like us”.

God has logic as we do. That is what I accept. I don't know the reasons He created the history He created but, per Adler, I know we were a required outcome He decided upon for his own reasons we can just guess at.

xxxxxxx

QUOTE Under “Nature’s Wonders”: "Like most plants, soybeans pair up with soil fungi in a symbiotic mycorrhizal relationship. In exchange for a bit of sugar, the fungus acts as an extension of the root system to pull in more phosphorus, nitrogen, micronutrients, and water than the plant could on its own."

DAVID: Both organisms benefit. How did this happen? Genes have to modified. That takes time unless it happens all at once due to God's action.

dhw: Just to illustrate the manner in which you insist that every natural wonder was preprogrammed by your God 3.8 billion years ago. You don’t think it’s possible that instead of all these billions of programmes, your God might have provided those first cells with a mechanism that would enable them to work out their own modes of survival. The only alternative you offer is that he personally gave courses in symbiosis to soybeans and soil fungi. (These programmes or private lessons are what you like to call “guidelines”.)

DAVID: Back you go to the same humanized view of God. Let organisms invent on their own. Would humans ever appear? How could apes think of the human brain as an outcome, beyond their knowledge? Only God can have a view of the future as He invents. It takes our type of brain to run evolution if outcomes are to be expected. You like rambling and experimenting. How illogical is that!

dhw: I’m sorry, but whereabouts in this post have you found a humanized view, rambling and experimenting? This post is exclusively dedicated to my criticism of your belief that your God either preprogrammed or taught soybeans and fungi to work together, and your dismissal of my alternative that he might have given them the means to work out their own symbiosis. But since you have raised the subject of humans, do please explain why, 3.8 billion years ago, your God decided to provide the first living cells with a programme for symbiosis between soybeans and soil fungi (or to give them private lessons) if his only desire was to design humans.

You keep insisting but I can't explain His actions and all your thoughts can only be at a human level of guesses, which constantly make Him as following human purposes.