Theodicy: solution lies in definition of God (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, September 24, 2021, 11:22 (1154 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Please remember our huge population size foreseen by God needs the current huge bush for food supply.

dhw: Of course we need the current huge bush, but we do not need the 3.X billion years’ worth of bush which had no connection with the current bush, but which you say your God specially designed even though his only purpose was to design us and our current bush.

DAVID: I've agreed with your proposals for God only if I consider your very humanized God who is bumbling along. The fine-tuning designed into His creations show a brilliant mind who knows exactly what He intends to do and does it.

dhw: No “bumbling”, brilliant mind yes, “knows exactly what He intends to do and does it” applies to the free-for-all and the experimenting, while getting new ideas fits in with the purpose/intention of setting something in motion in order to see where it will lead.

DAVID: Again describing a God unsure of His future creations doesn't change the picture of a weak struggling God, compared to my God who creates with specific purposes.

dhw: I’ve just answered this, so why do you repeat it?

DAVID: To show our different God's personalities.

There is no difference in personality, since we agree that if he exists, he has a brilliant mind, has specific purposes, knows what he intends to do, and does it. The only differences lie in our theories concerning his intentions and his methods, and in the fact that while you agree that all my proposals fit in logically with the history of life, your own makes no sense even to you. (So you tell me to go and ask God for an explanation.)

DAVID: Your complaint is a total dodge itself!!! I won't bother to answer other than to remind you only evolving us or directly creating us are only the two alternatives available to God.

But by "evolve" you mean personally design, so a third method would be to leave the evolution of ALL life forms to the cell communities which he endowed with the intelligence to do their own designing (though he could also dabble).

DAVID: We know He evolved us. We are the last major organism that has arrived. I believe God evolved us which makes us His goal.

But you believe your God also evolved [= designed] every other life form and food supply, including all those that had no connection with humans and their food, and so they must also have been his goal! Why would a purposeful God design them if he had no purpose for designing them?