Miscellany (General)

by dhw, Tuesday, September 07, 2021, 11:30 (963 days ago) @ David Turell

New amphibious whale
dhw: Why is it more difficult and cumbersome for God to invent a single mechanism which will be capable of autonomously making each decision, performing each operation, coping with each new situation, than for him to keep popping in and doing it all himself "hands on"?

DAVID: In human designing. if you do it yourself it is much easier than telling someone else how to do it and reach the proper desired result. I've been there as previously described.

dhw: Telling someone else means giving them instructions! I agree with you completely. In the theistic theory of cellular intelligence, your God has given cells the ABILITY to do the designing all by themselves, i.e. first-hand! “Much easier” for him than having to pop in and give them lessons on how to deal with every single new situation and on how to invent every innovation. Thank you for this excellent argument.

DAVID: And my view is organisms don't have God's designing capacities, just His instructions.

I know your view. Now how about answering the bolded question above?

dhw: You said I had no idea why we were here. I repeated your own guesses as to why we were here, and I have no objection to any of them. In fact, I like all of them. And I especially like the one about him enjoying creating and being interested in his creations, and I propose that this might explain why he created life in the first place, but for some reason, all of a sudden you object that your own guesses concerning why we are here must be rejected because they “humanize” your God.

DAVID: I haven't changed from an analyzing your God's "works" as indicating a human-style imagined God.

I was quoting your own guesses as to why we are here. I find them very feasible. Why are you now dismissing your own ideas as “human-style”? And what’s wrong with your own supportive theory that we “mimic him in many ways”?

Introducing the brain
DAVID: I think He dabbled hominin neurons to fit our consciousness needs.

dhw: So does that mean he gave them the ability to make their own decisions, or that he preprogrammed all their decisions 3.8 billion years ago, or that he pops in to give them instructions for every single decision?

DAVID: I said dabble the neurons' current abilities, so they can work on their own. I'd better add, following God's implanted instructions.

How can they work on their own if they follow instructions?

dhw: So every time there is a new problem he pops in to increase the neurons’ ability to follow the instructions he laid down 3.8 billion years ago? This is getting just a little confusing. How about a different, much simpler theory: 3.8 billion years ago, he provided cells with the ability/intelligence to solve problems all by themselves?

DAVID: You wish!!! I believe in evolution by selective design or descent by common design. When humans arrived those neurons had their necessary design.

Necessary for what? My proposal agrees that when humans arrived, neurons already had the design (the ability/intelligence) necessary for them to be able to solve their problems by themselves, without divine instructions and dabbling. But you propose that your God dabbled the current abilities of neurons (i.e.they weren’t already there), and instructions simply tell neurons what to do, so what exactly was already “designed” when humans arrived if it was not the autonomous ability/intelligence to solve problems?