Back to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, June 11, 2020, 16:10 (1624 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: I dodge nothing. You first agree that God could have chosen to evolve humans, and then you express surprise that so many forms over so many stages took place first!

dhw: My surprise is that an all-powerful God whose sole purpose (your theory) was to evolve (in your vocabulary = directly design) H. sapiens, directly designed 3.X billion years’ worth of life forms that had nothing to do with H. sapiens. This is the central point which even now you are still dodging.

You have invented a so-called dodge. Once again, from history, with God in charge of creating history. it is obvious God chose to evolve humans by first creating previous forms over the time required. You imply God should have directly created humans. It didn't happen that way.

dhw: I keep asking you to provide a connection between the 3.X billion years’ worth of extinct life forms, econiches and problems, and humans and their econiches and problems, and you cannot find one, which is why you keep changing the subject. There is no “bumbling” involved if your God creates a spectacle for himself to enjoy, or in the concept of a God who does not know everything in advance but experiments or, alternatively, deliberately sets in motion a process that may lead to unpredictable results (as with free will). All of these explain what you call the “historical record”, and fit in with your agreement that God probably has thought patterns similar to ours. […]

And all your suppositions about God's thoughts are obviously humanized suggestions. You deny that point, because you feel you can think like God, but all you are doing is attributing you human thinking to Him. God's reasons are known only to Him.

DAVID: …you are correct about God's interests. I certainly assume God is interested in all his evolutionary creations as they formed econiches, as He worked His evolutionary way to create humans.

dhw: So maybe – to fit in with part of your theory – he specially designed them because he was interested in specially designing things for his own interest. But how does this fit in with the theory that the ONLY thing your all-powerful, all-knowing God wanted to design was H. sapiens?

In running the process of evolution and creating the econiches, God's interest is in providing appropriate designs at each stage. You are, as usual, suggesting interest for the sake of interest. Just more humanizing. Why not accept God as simply working purposefully? He does not require self-satisfaction, a characteristic of your humanizing suggestions.