Back to David's theory of evolution: God's errors (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, July 26, 2020, 18:47 (1579 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID:If He couldn't stop the molecular errors, then they are not His fault.

dhw: So if I invent a flying machine which crashes because of a technical error I can’t stop, you won’t blame me as you hurtle to oblivion.

DAVID: A technical error is the designers fault!!! Like the MAX 737. These biological accidents are chance events, accidents not a designers fault.

dhw: But you keep telling us that it was your God who designed the molecules! Design is design, whether technological or biological. And if he's responsible for the designs that do work, why is he not responsible for the designs that don't?

God is not there holding hands with the molecules. They are designed to follow chemical commands, but the molecule may make its own mistake and mess up the reaction. Not God's fault, and He recognized the problem with backup systems in place. You do not understand the issue that high speed reactions can have errors God can't control.

DAVID: God is not at work now and has left us in charge, with great brains to solve accidental problems, which we often can do. Your view of God is as weird as usual.

dhw: He’s left us now, and our great brains can correct some of the errors he couldn’t correct. Somehow this means that although the errors were part of his design, they were not his fault, and somehow it means that we are not smarter than him. But if I suggest that your God knew what he was doing, and what you call errors were not errors at all but an integral part of his plan, I am the one with a “weird view” of God.

Yes, weird. The errors were not wanted, as shown by backup systems, which show the errors were anticipated.

DAVID: Your view of my presentations of God as illogical is due to your strange views about Him. I still believe in God despite my honest and logical presentation of biological problems that are not His fault. I am the one willing to show that God is not all-powerful and all-knowing and He can't stop molecular errors in a system He created, and you question me as if I am against God!! Unbelievable role reversals. Don't believe the God of the Bible.

dhw: A total misrepresentation of the whole argument, as you try to dodge the question in blue. I am not questioning your belief in God. I am questioning the logic behind your interpretation of the historical facts. For years you have objected to my theory that your God might have given free rein to evolution, because according to you he is all-powerful and always in control of everything. Now suddenly he is not all-powerful and he is not in control. Why? Because if he was, you would have to blame him for all the errors that indiscriminately cause disease and death. That is what I would call an “unbelievable role reversal”! And no, no, no, I do not question you as if you are against God! I question your interpretation of God’s nature, motives and methods.

I know you don't agree with my version of God, as you humanize Him beyond recognition. God dos not give free rein. He is too purposeful, our major disagreement.

QUOTE (from article on sialic acid)… This fertility barrier might have helped divide Homo populations into different species more than 2 million years ago, the researchers speculated. (DAVID’s bold)

DAVID: The last comment demonstrates that the battle with pathogens is a constantly changing arena of struggle. Note the bold. A mutational error favored by natural selection or by God may have arranged for our human evolution.

dhw: The authors attribute the change to a defence against malaria, and indeed, the battle is ongoing as new threats emerge demanding new cures. That is how the library of responses builds up, and again raises the problem of when your God is supposed to have designed the errors and the safeguards that did or didn’t work. Furthermore, the division into different species of homo plus “mutational errors” favoured by your God can hardly be said to fit in with your theory that your all-powerful, always-in-control God set out with the one and only purpose of “evolving” (which according to you = directly designing) H. sapiens.

Note the bold. God did not want errors. If the mutation resulted in our evolution God achieved His goal!