Human evolution: we are entirely improbable (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 24, 2021, 16:19 (1397 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Let's look at a philosophic view just published about our improbability:
https://nautil.us/issue/95/escape/is-life-special-just-because-its-rare-rp?mc_cid=d526f...

DAVID: How do you explain our existence? My answer is not by chance!

dhw: That is not an explanation. That is the dismissal of an explanation. Just as others would “explain” existence as being “not by an unknown, unknowable, eternally conscious, immaterial mind without a source but with infinite powers of psychokinesis.”

DAVID: The evidence of complex designs requires a designing mind. A tornado in a junk yard never makes a 747. For me appealing to chance is totally illogical.

dhw: I am happy to agree with you and Hoyle that chance is illogical. Now look at your explanation: bbbonly a living, conscious mind can design life and consciousness, and therefore our life and consciousness were designed by a living, conscious mind which was not designed by anything at all. Logical?

DAVID: You deny a first cause, which is not logical.

dhw: I have never denied a first cause! I have listed three possible first causes (your God, chance, and some form of panpsychism) but find none of them convincing enough to take a leap of faith. Now please explain the logic of your bolded theory above.

The usual: nothing never produces something. Therefore, as you agree, there must be a first cause. Of your three possibilities, chance is impossible because of the complexities in living biology and panpsychism is a woolly mind-like theory, so why not stick to the obvious: the necessity of an eternal planning mind?