David's theory of evolution Part Two (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, May 01, 2020, 11:30 (1665 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I do note your changes of mind, and look forward to more of them as we tackle the problems together:
April 5: I now think God directly dabbles most advances/new speciation and preprogramming may have a minor role.
April 23(?): It is certainly possible that an all-powerful, all-knowing God never has to dabble.

dhw: And today: hands-on all the way, i.e. a permanent dabble. So he has to directly create lots of different species over thousands of millions of years, but then wait for more oxygen so he can directly create totally different species, and directly organize mass extinctions in order to directly get rid of all the species, econiches, strategies, natural wonders which he directly created but doesn’t want, because all he wants to directly create is H. sapiens. And apparently this makes sense.

DAVID: It does to me if we take it that God is totally in charge as He evolves Earth, and as He evolves life when the earth is ready for each stage.

“Evolve” for you now means hands-on direct design. Your answer does not explain why your all-powerful, always-in-control God directly designed all those non-human life forms etc. and then destroyed them, if all he wanted to do was directly design H. sapiens. Previously you have said you have no idea why he chose this method, but now it makes sense to you, so please let me into the secret. And please don’t tell me that you can’t know God’s thinking, because that can only mean that it does NOT make sense to you.
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DAVID: Your alternative hypotheses are almost always humanizing His possible desires.

dhw: If, as you have said yourself and I have to repeat ad nauseam, he probably/possibly has thought patterns and emotions and attributes similar to ours, it is patently absurd to dismiss alternatives just because they allow for him having thought patterns and emotions and attributes similar to ours.'

DAVID: That doesn't answer my objections to giving Him human purposes. He is not human, suirely understands our emotions and may not have them Himself.

But you said he probably does have them (later it was possibly), and since none of us can actually KNOW the truth, we can only offer theories based on possibilities. I repeat: it is absurd to reject a theory on the grounds that although something is probable/possible, it may not be true.

DAVID: All extinctions I've just listed were due to changing events on an evolving Earth.

dhw: Obviously. And presumably your hands-on God changed them after taking all that trouble to design the things he destroyed.

DAVID: You refuse to accept the idea God evolved life until He got to us as a final step.

That does not explain why he designed all those species and then destroyed them! With my theist hat on, of course I accept the idea that God evolved life and that we are the last step so far. I do not accept that God directly designed every extinct life form, econiche etc., or that he did so for the sole purpose of keeping life going until he directly designed us. Please stop glossing over the bits of your theory that I am challenging!

DAVID: I haven't changed my mind. My God controls evolution. He is not human and may not have any of our emotions, but He understands them.

Your God has so far controlled evolution by preprogramming it with a few dabbles, done no dabbles at all, and then done nothing but dabbles. You refuse to contemplate the possibility that he might deliberately give up control, although he has done so by giving humans free will and maybe left nasty viruses to do their own thing too. And although he “may not” have some of our thought patterns and emotions, he probably/possibly does have them.

DAVID: You accept design which keeps you from atheism, and your mind, contaminated by religious teachings in your youth, has you make fun of my views of God.

The religious teaching I received was that God was hands on: he directly created humans and all the animals that were to serve humans. Just like your theory, which I keep questioning. It never actually mentioned evolution at all, let alone any explanation as to why an all-powerful God (also your theory) would directly create and then destroy millions and millions of life forms etc. BEFORE making humans and the animals that were to serve them. Please stop trying to defend your illogical theory by concocting silly stories about me. But I am not making fun of your views of God. I am using every means possible to explain why I find them unreasonable, I ask you to explain the illogicalities but you can’t, and I offer you alternatives which even you agree are logical but reject for the illogical reason that although God probably/possibly has thought patterns like ours, he doesn’t.

DAVID: All I've started with is there must by a greater power. The rest is all in my imagination as to how it must work as an unimaginably powerful mind.

Yes, your theory of evolution is pure imagination, and the function of this website is to discuss all the imaginings (nobody knows the truth) to see whether or not they make sense.