David's theory of evolution Part Two (Evolution)

by dhw, Saturday, May 02, 2020, 10:32 (1664 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: It does [make sense] 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.

dhw: “Evolve” for you now means hands-on direct design.

DAVID: I've always stated God speciated. Why are you surprised? A designer designs!!!!

Yes of course he does. It’s just your use of the word “evolve” that is so misleading. Separate design is normally regarded as the opposite of evolution, so we need to clarify what you mean by it.

dhw: 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.

DAVID: It has always made sense to me. God chose to evolve humans starting with bacteria, and I have no idea why God did it that way. It was His choice. It makes no sense to you because you view God from a humanizing viewpoint.

That way makes sense to you, but you have no idea why he did it that way. So maybe he didn’t do it that way!

[I am juxtaposing parts of your post to make the arguments clearer.]

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

dhw: 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. […] Please stop glossing over the bits of your theory that I am challenging!

DAVID: I gloss over nothing. God created the history of evolution and allowed/caused all the exterminations. As for your problem, remember, the Earth has a finite size and needs to keep room for each new stage, now well over seven billion humans. Simple answer: make room!!

Why “allowed”? Two days ago, he was totally hands-on. Now you’re saying he may not have caused them. As for making room, if God’s only purpose was to create H. sapiens, and he is all-powerful and always hands-on, why bother to fill the Earth with unwanted life forms in the first place? Your answer: “I have no idea why God did it that way.” It doesn’t make sense, even to you, so do please take off your blinkers.

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

dhw: 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: You can invent all sorts of possibilities, without knowing the real truth.

As all of us do, including you. None of us can know the “real truth”, and so we test the different possibilities. You can’t find the logic of yours, and you accept the logic of all mine, but reject them all because they are based on something which is probably/possibly true.

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.

dhw: 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.

DAVID: My view of a greater power comes from my decision that there must be a mind that does all the biological designs. it is the same thought that keeps you agnostic, which I find totally illogical. We are not far apart!! As for imagination, the real problem starts with an approach to God, and that requires a proper set of guidelines as to how to think about Him and therefore how to think about what He creates.

Currently we are not discussing the existence of God but your theistic theory of evolution. If God exists, only he can know the “proper set of guidelines about how to think about him”. But if the guidelines you follow lead you to an explanation of evolution which makes no sense to you, perhaps you might reconsider your self-imposed guidelines as to how to think about him.