Return to David's theory of evolution PART TWO (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, January 02, 2022, 16:15 (1054 days ago) @ dhw

PART TWO

DAVID: In religious circles your weak God would not be recognized, using Adler as a example.

dhw: I do not regard any of my proposed versions of God as being “weak”. And I suggest to you that quite apart from Deism, which you conveniently forgot about, there are religious “circles” which believe in multiple gods with all kinds of characteristics, and in any case, I had no idea that you were such a fan of religion. I have always kept in mind the wonderful dedication you wrote at the beginning of your first book, and it is well worth quoting here:

“Organized religion and patterns of belief are too often developed from the conceits of humans, who presume to know very exactly God’s intentions and very exactly the meanings of all the teachings in the Bible, and press others to accept their interpretations. True religion comes from within the individual, added (should this have been “aided”) by study from without.”

dhw: This was published before Dawkins’ The God Delusion, and for any followers of this website, I am going to balance my attacks on the rigid beliefs you express in this forum by saying that I not only had the privilege of editing your second book (The Atheist Delusion) but would wholeheartedly recommend it. In both your books, you steer clear of identifying with particular religions and of most of the contentious subjects we are discussing here, and wisely focus on the scientific evidence for design. Even though I remain firmly seated on my agnostic fence, these books are an education in themselves.

Your concepts of God and mine are colored by childhood instruction. My words you quoted still apply. But my point as I just noted in PART ONE is we start with the same all-powerful God concept, but diverge from my very purposeful God who knows the exact direction in which He is headed, and compared to yours who gives up control, changes His mind, experiments, and obviously had no endpoint in mind when He started to create.