David's theory of evolution Part Two (Evolution)

by dhw, Saturday, April 18, 2020, 13:19 (1678 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: We go round and round with no agreement, as our visions of God are so different. I start on solid ground: God is in charge of creation. Therefore history tells us what He did. You question why did it happen that way when He could have done it differently. You are questioning my God and wonder why He was so patient. It is a problem you create because you have a humanized view of God.

dhw: History tells us that there has been a huge bush of life forms, 99% of which have gone extinct, and humans came comparatively late on the scene. ..The criticism of your illogicality has nothing whatsoever to do with the alternatives I offer, all of which you agree are logical.

DAVID: They are illogical to you because you do not see God as I do, nor have you accepted "The Difference of Man and the Difference it Makes". Nor do you seem to know the warnings Adler gives about imagining God personage\:

I keep repeating that I accept the uniqueness of humans, and the argument for design, and I even offered you one explanation which made man God’s ultimate purpose. I couldn’t care less what Adler says about imagining God (see last paragraph below). If you are incapable of defending your own image of God’s nature, purpose and method in a theory which you tell me Adler does not even deal with, then it’s no use quoting Adler. Your criticisms of my alternative versions do not make the slightest difference to the illogicality of your own. But of course you are welcome to attack them, as you do, on the grounds that although you believe your God possibly/probably has thought patterns, emotions and attributes similar to ours, he does not have thought patterns, emotions and attributes similar to ours, because Adler says we mustn’t think like that.

DAVID: God created all of reality, and may still be evolving the universe for all we know.

dhw: Good to hear that humans may not be the endpoint after all. Now please answer the question.

DAVID: Wrong conclusion. I said universe not humans.

Sorry, but I thought you thought your God’s sole purpose in creating the universe was to create humans. Please tell us what other purpose you think God may have had in creating the universe.

DAVID: I'm sure God is watching, at His own level of personal thought. ("Cellular controls of protein paths", 6th March @ 16.56)

dhw: Yep, you’re sure your hidden God is watching, but you ridicule the idea that he created life so that he could watch it.

DAVID: […] God watches what He created, but since He is the creator it is not a spectator but as an interested inventor. Spectators watch interesting spectacles, as you have stated God does. How human God is in your description, as usual.

dhw: […] I reckon inventors are human actually, and yes, I reckon an inventor would indeed want to watch how his invention worked. Your other image was the painter enjoying his paintings. Mine would be a playwright watching the actors perform the play. You are sure your God is watching. Good. And he created what he is watching. Good (no matter how he created it). What else do you think he’s doing other than watching the spectacle he created?

DAVID: Please read Adler!!! You do not know how to think about God.

Unless Adler has a direct line to God, may I put it to you that only God knows how we should think about him. But I do agree with you that if he exists, God possibly/probably has thought patterns etc. in common with us. What’s wrong with that? Meanwhile, I came across an interesting quote from the walking fish thread (23 January @ 22:25) I asked if you rejected Deism, and you replied: “To be honest, yes. I assume if he did all that creating He’d like to follow the results and as I view God as supremely purposeful, it is most likely he is still actively interested in what he produced. To do it and leave seems odd.” I’m not sure that Deists specify that he has left, but I’m happy with your “follow the results” and “actively interested”. Although he wouldn’t have to follow the results if he knew them already.
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"Balance of Nature" (QUOTE): "If we lose species, we lose unique ecological functions. This is a warning that we need to act now to reduce growing human pressures on marine megafauna, including climate change, while nurturing population recoveries.'"

DAVID: The importance of econiches (ecosystems) is again demonstrated. The current bush of life is required and anticipated by God as He evolved life on Earth.

No one could possibly say that econiches are not important for every single form of life that ever existed, including our own. How this proves that your God had to directly design 3.X billion years’ worth of extinct econiches in order to directly design the current bush of life remains the question which you have “no idea” how to answer.