Theodicy: solution lies in definition of God (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, September 30, 2021, 16:12 (1148 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: No, the difference is God's personality as each of us views Him. My God picked the best system possible, knowing mistakes were necessarily built in, but had to be accepted.

dhw: We are going round in circles. This means your all-powerful, all-knowing God was limited in his powers, and tried but sometimes failed to correct the errors in his design. My all-powerful, all-knowing God would have created precisely what he wanted to create and did create.

My God knew the limits of the one possible way to invent life and used it.

DAVID: He designed evolution with direct intentionality to reach the production of sapiens.

dhw: And so his “direct intentionality” entailed designing countless life forms that had no connection with his intention, which was humans!

Same answer, God chose to evolve us by stepwise design. Your approach, knowing the history
God created, is totally illogical.

God always evolves goals
DAVID: Note God didn't simply put oxygen on Earth. He had organisms develop it. Just like he didn't make all the elements at once, but gave the stars a process to make them internally and release them in explosions. We cannot know if God is limited in His creationist abilities or simply prefers evolving what He wishes. I still think in inventing living biochemistry He developed the only possible working system.

dhw: I have no problem envisaging your God as an experimental scientist, working out the right formula for life and evolution. I only have problems with your anthropocentric view of evolution, which ignores all the life forms that had no connection with humans, and with your non-explanation of “theodicy”, which appears to be that his powers were limited, “errors” were not his fault, he had good intentions which will one day be revealed, and we should only think of the good things he’s done.

You've summarized my approach, which is a clear explanation of His works.

dhw: The rest of your post consists of one dodge after another, as you seek to avoid answering this straightforward question: if your God’s only purpose was to design humans and their food, why would he have designed countless extinct life forms and foods that had no connection with humans?

This time the dodge is to repeat various other dodges.

DAVID: You have repeated your same hodgepodge of illogical thought about God. I don't have to know why God did what He did. I accept what He created as His intentions.

dhw: You don’t know why God would have done what you illogically say he did: namely, he designed countless organisms that had no connection with humans, although humans were his only intention.

It is logical to accept the history God created when He evolved us by his design.

DAVID: What you do not accept is that our exceptionality is a major philosophical consideration in questioning whether God is present. Adler covered the point to my satisfaction. You constantly degrade it as an attempt to diminish God.

dhw: I have always accepted our exceptionality, and my bolded question does not question the existence of God, and does not in any way diminish God.

DAVID: My deeply considered views have arrived at a picture of God you don't recognize. We cannot cross that gap. I don't dodge. I don't accept your criticisms as coming from a very skewed approach to theistic thought. It is simple for me to accept God chose to evolve us over 3.8 by's. No rush, but careful stepwise design while carefully creating a massive bush of ecosystems supplying food for all. You can sneer at that construction of reasoning, as you do, but you don't deny the logic of a necessary food supply.

dhw: I have no problem with the stepwise evolution of humans and all the other forms of life and their food. The problem is the bolded question, which you continue to dodge. Why all the countless life forms and food supplies that had no connection with humans, if humans and their food supply were his only purpose?

Same answer. God chose to evolve us by design from bacteria as His created history shows.