A possible God's possible purpose and nature (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by David Turell , Monday, January 17, 2022, 16:50 (1039 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: In no way do I consider God like a human.

dhw: You have repeatedly agreed that he probably has thought patterns, emotions and logic like ours, and we mimic him, and you even dismissed one of my theories because you believe your God to be too “kindly” to wish us harm.

From the other thread today: " God's comparative thought patterns like ours do not make Him in any way human. I'm describing a purposeful God who knows exactly what He is doing, vastly different from the one you describe as you imagine possibilities for some sort of God." Please discuss God's personality to stay on point.

DAVID: My God is purposeful with known end points from the beginning. Yours is not based on your description of His actions. Actions define personality. Terms are just descriptions.

dhw: If God exists, of course he must have had a purpose in creating life. Why plural “endpoints”? Your ONLY purpose is the creation of humans plus their food, and you can’t explain why he would have designed the rest. All my alternatives (free-for-all, experimenting, getting new ideas) are purposeful! Finally, actions are not definitions!

Wildly diffuse. We can only try to define God's personality by His actions in what He created. And chose purposeful or not.

DAVID: All we can know is Chixculub caused a major change in course. It may have been part of His plan.

Dhw: But you are now allowing for the possibility that your God did not control all the environmental changes that caused a “major change in course”. In which case, it’s possible that he changed course in response to events that were not planned or under his control.

All I am allowing is Schroeder proposed God might have thrown it, and I agree about this one episode.

DAVID: The biochemistry of life works in a required soupy state where molecules are free to react improperly. [..]

dhw: So you agree that the molecules are free.

DAVID: Not totally free. They are built to fold and react automatically in a liquid environment in which there cannot be control restraints to monitor every change, because that would slow the necessary speed of the reactions.

dhw: Every species depends on automatic conformity to a pattern. But there has to be a degree of freedom for adaptation to new conditions and the production of new organs and organisms, and this same degree of freedom can lead to all the nasty diseases your all-powerful God did not have the power to control.

You didn't respond to my discussion of molecular actions, but side-slipped into theodicy again. God gave us the only system that would work, recognized the probability of errors and added editing which works properly into the trillions of reactions required every nanosecond.

DAVID: The origin of life requires highly technical reactions, not possible without guidance. Read James Tour's current article to see that.

dhw: You constantly try to divert attention from the flaws in your theory of evolution by emphasizing the design case for the existence of God. I have never questioned the logic of this, and it is one reason why I’m an agnostic and not an atheist. I’ve also explained many times why I'm an agnostic and not a theist.

DAVID: Not a diversion. It is my attempt to introduce you to the complexity of living biochemistry by actually seeing examples Tour presents. You start with no knowledge of this, but then comment as if you do.

dhw: I have never claimed to be a biochemist, but I know enough to understand and accept the logic of the design argument. You don’t need to hammer this point home, but I’m happy to keep learning. However, I’m not happy when you try to switch the subject from the illogical flaws in your theistic theory of evolution to the logical use of life's complexity as evidence of your God’s existence. They are two different subjects.

God is the designer, as I theorize, and as such designed every new stage of evolution. What is illogical about that? We differ in that my God is purposeful in action, and yours has to experiment, allow free-for-alls and seeks entertainment in very unGodly ways.