Theodicy: bad bacteria seen differently (Introduction)

by David Turell @, Thursday, July 15, 2021, 18:26 (978 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: My point is that it’s only if life forms have the freedom to pursue their own methods of survival (i.e. to adjust their bodies and modes of existence) in ways that can meet or exploit new conditions that we can say God did not deliberately create what we humans consider to be good/bad. There IS no good/bad other than that which WE have created with our anthropocentric view of the world, and even from our point of view, God did not deliberately create anything “bad”, because it had the freedom to find its own way of surviving.

DAVID: So as you continue you comeback to agreeing. I started the theodicy thread looking only at bad, as we seem to interpret it, and we have reached a solution. Proves our battles can be fruitful.

dhw: Thank you for at last appearing to accept the theory that your God left all life forms the freedom to find their own ways of survival, i.e. he did not design them, but left them to “adjust their bodies and modes of existence”.If he did not design them, he cannot be held responsible for what we humans consider to be bad. Alas, though, I suspect that this will not be the happy ending to our discussion!

DAVID: No, I'm happy with all except you keep fighting the idea of God as the designer.

dhw: I have not fought the idea of God the designer. I have fought your insistence that he deliberately designed every life form, including the murderous bacteria.

You have just fought my idea of God as designing everything. That is what a designer of reality does!!!

dhw: With my theist’s hat on, I have proposed that God designed the intelligence which enables all life forms to adapt or innovate in their quest for survival without his interference. By giving them their freedom, he cannot be said to have deliberately designed “good” and “bad”, which are human inventions based on anthropocentric criteria.

How does evolution reach a specific goal with your free-for-all??? You must then accept humans appearance as entirely accidental. Adler and I think that view os entirely illogical.


xxxx

DAVID: There are bad vaginal bacteria that fight the good ones:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210713165306.htm
DAVID: Once again, we have good bacteria, which help us, fighting with bad ones and we get caught in the middle. Not God's fault.

dhw: Not his fault if he didn’t specifically design them to be “good” or “bad”, but only designed the means that enable them to design/redesign themselves in their quest for survival. Then what is “good” for them may be “bad” for us. If he did design them individually, you are back to square one: why did he deliberately design those which he knew would cause so much suffering to us and our fellow creatures?

The bold is your human assertion/interpretation of God's possible intent. As innocent bystanders the interpretation doesn't fit. I view it as God knowing the problems that might appear and gave us the brains to fight back.


Complete thread:

 RSS Feed of thread

powered by my little forum