A possible God's possible purpose and nature (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Monday, May 31, 2021, 11:29 (1270 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I view the entire universe as fine-tuned to allow life. Like your approach to evolution you are now slicing up the universe into differing unrelated parts. I view it as all related to the purpose of allowing life to appear.

dhw: And here I am asking why you think the billions of both extant and extinct galaxies (lifeless or only with primitive life) all had to be created just to allow humans to appear on Earth. Your answer is the same as your answer on evolution (why did your God specially design all the life forms unconnected with humans?): “we don’t know the answer, but I accept them as part of God’s purpose.” No you don’t “accept” – that presupposes you know you are right that they are part of the purpose you impose on him. That is your BELIEF. And you can’t find any logical justification for it.

DAVID: I have to remind you, I started as an agnostic and developed belief from the evidence in my two books and presented here. Evidence beyond a reasonable doubt for me.

That is evidence for the existence of your God - not for your theories concerning his possible purpose, method and nature. In any case, why are you telling me this? I started as a practising Jew and became an agnostic. Darwin started as a practising Christian and became an agnostic. Why do you think your history gives your beliefs concerning your God’s purpose and nature more authenticity than any other version, especially when you can’t even find any logic behind some of them but reject other possible explanations which even you agree are logical?

dhw: I am merely asking you what you think might be the purpose of billions of barren galaxies, and galaxies with nothing but primitive life. And if there are human-type beings elsewhere, what do you think is your purposeful God’s purpose in designing them? We’ll leave out theodicy for now.

DAVID: And I've told you I do not know why the universe is so huge. It allows life to appear. Explanation requires more human research. What we can say it was God's [OBVIOUS] purpose to create life.

If God exists, then of course he would have created life on purpose. But you insist on going far, far beyond that obvious statement, and you “guess” the purpose (to create humans), the method (to design millions of life forms de novo that had nothing to do with humans), that your God is always in control, would not have wanted a free-for-all, must have had a “good” or “beneficial” reason for designing murderous bacteria and viruses, and would have designed all the billions of galaxies extant and extinct, lifeless or otherwise, in order to design humans or their like, but we mustn’t ask why because that involves guesswork!

dhw: You did offer an answer to all these questions earlier: “I simply accept what we see as God’s wish to create”. You then denied that God wished for anything, and so perhaps we can clear up some of the confusion if you explain what you meant by “God’s wish to create”.

DAVID: God is the Creator. Of course He wishes to create. And He doesn't just create anything, but results that achieve His purposes defined as the bush of life and finally humans by the process of a designed evolutionary process.

And you guess that the purpose of your purposeful God’s wish to create the whole bush of life (99% of which had no connection with humans), and to finally design humans was….???