Let's study ID (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, September 11, 2021, 15:40 (952 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You think your God is all-powerful, and had only one purpose for creating life (humans plus food), but the history shows countless forms of life and food that had no connection with humans!

DAVID: What are you smoking? My theory follows history exactly. It is obvious God chose to evolve/design us starting with bacteria. That resulted in the present food supply and countless forms alive and extinct.

dhw: Dodge, dodge, dodge. You have left out the key question: if his only purpose was to design us, why did his design of us include countless extinct life forms THAT HAD NO CONNECTION WITH US?

It is not a dodge if you can accept, as I do, that God chose to evolve us from bacteria. You dodge that concept constantly.

dhw: you have no idea why he designed them if his one and only purpose was to design us, and so you tell me to ask God for the logical explanation you cannot find.

DAVID: I cannot know why God chose to do it this way. I simply accept His works as presented.

dhw: But you don’t “know” that your God chose to design humans by first designing all the forms that had no connection with humans, and you don’t even know that your God designed every life form. That is your theory. His works as presented are open to different interpretations of his purpose and his method, and you can see the logic behind each of the theistic alternatives I have suggested. It’s only your own that leaves you clueless – hence your proposal that I go and ask your God to explain it!

Answer the issue: are we evolved from bacteria? If God is in charge, didn't He do it? If God is in charge, what He produces are evidence of His purpose?

DAVID: You tell me how you would have God produce us.

dhw: […] if I were your all-powerful God, and humans and their food were my purpose, I would proceed exactly as he proceeds in Genesis: create the food first, and then create the humans. Just like that. But you and I don’t believe that it happened that way, do we? And so you are left with the question you cannot answer, and you tell me to ask God to explain your theory to me.

DAVID: In Genesis humans came last and everything else first day by day. But we know Hebrew scholars translate 'day' as meaning a length of time. It is exactly how our science says it happened.

dhw: Genesis does not say God created every animal including humans stage by stage, or that we ourselves descended from earlier forms of animal. And we’re not arguing about the translation of a word. You asked me how I would have your God produce us, and I have answered: in a word, directly, as in Genesis.

DAVID: Your complaint is baseless. Humans were His eventual goal is how I view it and will not change because you complain.

dhw: I have no objection to the theory that humans might have been his eventual goal. I only object to your illogical theory that he designed every single life form as part of that goal, even though the vast majority of life forms had no connection with that goal.

And you ignore the obvious need for a huge food supply for the current huge human population, fueled by intricate ecosystems populated by the branched diversity created by God's evolution. Do you ever consider all the ramifications of God's planned designed evolution? To me a beautifully thought through example of planning, all from the evidence at hand..