Back to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, June 07, 2020, 10:41 (1628 days ago) @ David Turell

This thread has become a master class in the evasion of a single question, but perhaps the sheer repetition will eventually produce an answer!

dhw: I just wonder why your God created all those extinct organisms and econiches if all he wanted to create was H. sapiens and his econiches.

DAVID: Same simple answer. God controls creation and history tells us He chose to evolve humans. I don't know how you can logically question that conclusion.

If God exists, history tells us that he chose evolution as the method of producing every single organism that ever lived. It does not tell us that he directly designed every single one, or that the only organism he wanted evolution to produce was H. sapiens.

DAVID: Same weird response. Evolving humans took the time it took. You grant the validity of the process and then complain about it.

dhw: Evolving EVERY life form took the time it took! That does not explain why your God specially designed all those extinct life forms if the only life form he wanted to design was us. PLEASE STOP DODGING!

DAVID: You are the dodging one! Remember history tells us life's evolution goes from fairly simple to very complex. Humans are the end point as very complex. Still the simpler ones had to come first. We did come out of modified apes.

But we did not come out of 3.X billion years’ worth of extinct life forms, econiches, lifestyles, strategies, natural wonders etc., all of which you insist were directly designed by your God, although the only thing he wanted to design was H. sapiens. There is no straight line from simple bacteria to very complex humans! And you have no idea why the line wiggled all over the place if your God was always in total control.

dhw: In your theory, your God could and did evolve (= directly design in your strange use of language) EVERY life form – not just humans. And so it does not make sense to claim that he only wanted to design humans!

DAVID: What's wrong with recognizing Humans were His ultimate purpose and He used evolution of life to get there?

You are claiming that he specially designed 3.X billion years’ worth of non-human life forms in order to get to humans! I have offered you two theistic explanations of the non-human bush that do allow for the special purpose, but you keep ignoring them or trotting out your silly “humanization” objection.

DAVID: The bold is a gross distortion of my meanings. He obviously had to design all prior stages until He got to humans. My usage of words is not strange. God is the necessary designer of the evolutionary process

Yes, if he exists he designed the evolutionary process. But “evolution” does not mean the direct design of every product of the evolutionary process, and it does not mean that every organism that preceded humans constituted a necessary prior stage on the way from bacteria to humans.