Back to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, July 21, 2020, 18:17 (1584 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: He invented living organisms, but cannot stop molecular mistakes. Accept it.

dhw: As usual, I will put on my theist hat for the sake of this discussion. Why should I accept your theory that your at times all-powerful, all-knowing, always-in-control God is so incompetent that he invents a system which includes mistakes he can’t control, whereas we humans are smart enough to correct some of them! And why should I accept that millions of mistaken deaths are a sign of good planning? (NB This is not a criticism of God, but of your interpretation of God’s powers and wishes.)

Off the point of my explanation as usual. We do not know of any other system He could invent. We know it must be carbon based, and the reactions occur at very high split-second speed. It relies on proteins which must fold precisely to produce their functionality. This allows for the definite probability of molecular error, and we see the backup systems builtin for corrections. They tell us God foresaw the problems. As for correction of biological errors, God gave us the complexity of brain to solve what we can solve. Your problem not mine. Your theistic hat is wildly askew as usual. I wish I could clarify your knowledge of biochemistry, as you obviously don't comprehend my point of view.

DAVID: That still doesn't tell us His reasoning behind His purposes.
And:
DAVID: To arrive at purpose one must think through all the reasons for choosing that purpose. you are trying to skip a mental step in wordplay of your own.

dhw: Your God’s purpose was to design H. sapiens (God hasn’t told us the reason why), and his purpose for designing all the extinct non-human life forms, econiches etc. was to feed H. sapiens, who had not yet arrived (God hasn’t told us the reason and you have no idea why he thought he needed to feed all the extinct non-human forms before he directly designed H. sapiens).

Ridiculous comment. Feeding everyone during evolution is an obvious necessity. And obviously God has never told anyone (skipping Bible stories) His reasons for doing any of the things He has done. We can only base it on His works.

dhw: You dismiss other theories... because they humanize your God, although you agree that he probably has thought patterns and emotions similar to ours but apparently this is a distortion of your statement that he probably has thought patterns and emotions similar to ours.

There can be only one definite theory only about God's thoughts: He uses logic as we do. The rest is guesswork.

dhw: If God exists, then of course the history tells us what he did. But history does not tell us the purposes you attribute to him, and you have told us that you have no idea why he would have chosen to “evolve” H. sapiens (= specially design in your vocabulary) by first evolving (= specially designing) billions of now extinct non-human life forms, econiches, natural wonders etc.

The results clearly indicate purpose: Adler's point that our unusual appearance with our consciousness attribute clearly indicates God's purpose. Enough proof for me.

dhw: However, if your God had other goals or secondary purposes, we might be able to find a more logical explanation of evolution, so please tell us what you think the other or secondary purposes might have been.

DAVID: All I can do is look at history and the extraordinary result of conscious humans. I'll ask you, are there other purposes? I don't know of any serious ones.

dhw: If you can’t think of any other purposes, then please stop pretending that I distort your opinions, and please stop substituting “a” purpose or a “prime purpose” or “endpoint” for THE purpose. How do you define “serious” ones? I have offered you several logical explanations of the history: experimenting, getting new ideas as history progresses, designing for his own enjoyment, designing to relieve the boredom of eternal isolation – all of these in keeping with your own extremely serious observation that he probably has thought patterns and emotions similar to ours.

The usual humanized version of how God thinks and develops purpose. And it ends with the usual distortion of my view of God's thoughts. All any of us can know is He is as logical as we are. His reasons behind His purposes are his thoughts alone.