Theodicy: solution lies in definition of God (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, October 07, 2021, 09:07 (1142 days ago) @ David Turell

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

dhw: His direct intentionality led to his designing life forms that had no connection with his intention, and that apparently is logical. The various alternative approaches I have proposed are all logical, according to you, and that makes them all totally illogical.[…]

DAVID: Food supply is essential. Your theories fit your style of a humanized form of God who does not have defined purposeful goals.

dhw: See above for a possible purpose (enjoyment of creation and interesting things to watch). Food supply is essential to all forms of life, not just sapiens. The only purposeful goal you offer is that of designing homo sapiens and his food, and you have no idea why he would - according to you - also have individually designed countless extinct life forms that had no connection with humans.

DAVID: Evolution connects everything. You can't split it up into unrelated parts.

You have already done so with your theory of Cambrian species without precursors, but in any case, the only connection between all the branches of evolution is that they descend from a single root – bacteria. Countless branches have lived and died, but that does not mean they were all connected with humans and our food.

dhw: ...Are you saying that your God individually designed every life form, econiche, strategy, natural wonder etc. just so that the animals etc. could eat one another before he designed humans?

DAVID: Yes. And then we eat them.

dhw: How can we eat animals that no longer exist?

DAVID: Same silly approach , we obviously eat what is present.

So stop pretending that every single species of animal that ever existed was necessary for OUR food supply.

DAVID: […] It is simple to accept that God chose to evolve us in necessary stages. All evolution is connected in branching stages.

dhw: It is indeed simple for any evolutionist to accept that ALL life forms branched out in stages from earlier life forms. That does not mean that all extinct life forms plus food, most of which had no connection with humans plus food, existed only “as part of the goal of evolving [= designing] humans” plus food.

DAVID: It does if one believe God evolved us from bacteria.

Firstly, that is no longer clear since you believe the Cambrian yielded species with no precursors (see “giraffe plumbing”), and secondly, our evolution from bacteria does not explain why your God would have specially designed life forms which had no connection with his “direct intentionality” to create us and our food.