George Coyne, Vatican astronomer obituary (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 18:13 (1738 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: His view of God is not mine, and perhaps closer to dhw's in his theistic mode.

dhw: Not sure how he reconciles the concept of freedom at all levels, and not constantly intervening, with “participates, loves” and the parent analogy. But yes, a lot of this would explain the higgledy-piggledy history of evolution which is so baffling to someone who believes that God started out aiming to create just one species. But at least all of us can agree that we humans are unique in our self-reflexivity!

DAVID: Your problem is you do not understand that I think the higgledy-piggledy history is required to allow econiches for the necessary food supply.

dhw: Your problem is you cannot explain why your all-powerful, all-knowing, can-do-whatever-he-wants God should have found it necessary to design 3.X billion years’ worth of econiches to provide the necessary food supply for millions and millions of non-human life forms, lifestyles, strategies, natural wonders etc. before he even began to fulfil what you say was his one and only purpose, which was to design H. sapiens.

Your usual set-in-stone totally unreasonable mantra. My God, in charge, can reach His goal of humans any way He wishes. Evolution over time requires the plan He followed. Would you prefer humans and nothing else as His endpoint as your unreasonable approach demands?