David's theory of evolution Part Two (Evolution)

by David Turell , Monday, April 27, 2020, 19:15 (1669 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: […] Please accept it: God speciates either by modification of the previous, as in hominin brain growth or new inventions like the Cambrian.

dhw: So now that dabbling is out of favour, we have a 3.8-billion-year-old programme for common descent and separate creation. How could he preprogramme separate creation if there was nothing to carry the programme?

If God created life as I believe, inventing the Cambrian was easy for Him.

dhw: Under "extinctions", you wrote:
DAVID: Raup claims in his book, all who lost had bad luck.

dhw: Two predictable questions for you, just to add to the mystery: 1) Do you think your God preprogrammed these extinctions (after all, you think dabbling would suggest he’d made a mistake, which would make him weak and human for you.) 2) If so, why do you think he deliberately programmed all these life forms and their extinction in the first place if the only life form he wanted was H. sapiens? Please don’t say it was so that they could eat one another until his H. sapiens programme switched itself on.

We are debating my guesses as to how God conducted evolution. Note as guesses they have no firm existence, much as you delight in approaching them that way. The only solid point is God is in charge of evolution and created what looks like common descent.

DAVID: . A God who created the universe and life knows fully about our emotions without having to experience them. It is just more humanizing on your part that you cannot seem to understand.

dhw: I’m sure he knows what we’re feeling, but he is supposed to have created these thought patterns and emotions in the first place! How the heck do you know that he never actually felt any of them? You “cannot seem to understand” that if your God probably/possibly has thought patterns and emotions and attributes similar to ours, as you believe, then maybe he has thought patterns, emotions and attributes similar to ours!

Same old humanizing. God is not human. He may certainly know our emotions without having them

DAVID: Of course we can discuss them. It is all guesswork or mental masturbation as I view it, so lets discuss in non-human terms in deference to God's non-human status. And I'm allowed to follow Adler's teachings in doing that. He was one of must highly respected philosophers of religion in the 20th century.

dhw: But you are guessing that although your God has thought patterns similar to ours, he doesn’t!

We can be sure God is logical. Beyond that we cannot know the reasons behind his Creations

dhw: Why should I accept your guesses about his nature, purpose and method, just because you don’t want to discuss alternatives?

It is not discussion if it is all guesses.

dhw: And must all of us follow the views of people just because they are highly respected in their particular field? Darwin was and still is highly respected in his field. Would you accept that as a reason to follow him? Or would you prefer to test his arguments for yourself?

I've tested Darwin, and he fails in all except the concept of common descent. Not his fault, based on what information he had

DAVID: God does not need to experiment.

dhw: How do you know?

He made our universe with quantum basis. He made life, I know how powerful His mind is.

DAVID: You've simply repeated what I write in your own tilted version of my theory[…] God runs evolution and prepares for the future He knows is coming.

dhw: I’ve repeated what you write because that is what makes your theory so illogical. Nothing tilted. I just want to know why you think 3.X billion years’ worth of specially preprogrammed extinct non-human life forms and bushes constituted preparation for the already preprogrammed, one and only species plus bushes that he actually wanted in the first place and, since he is all-powerful and in total control, could have produced any way he wanted.

Easy. He chose the way history shows us. And you convolute objections from your human view of God, who, in your analysis experiments, enjoys spectacles He invents for that purpose, and inexplicably takes His time about evolving whatever it is He is evolving. Just accept the history as representing what God does and how He does it. Please try to remember, I have guessed as to how God does His creation, pre-programming or dabbling, but never experimenting