Return to David's theory of evolution PART 1 (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, 11:15 (912 days ago) @ David Turell

PART ONE

dhw: […] Please will you finally stop assuming that he individually designed every life form, econiche, natural wonder etc. and that every one of them served the purpose of preparing the way for humans plus food. That is your theory – it is not the history!

DAVID: But I view it as the history of God's works.

dhw: The history is countless life forms, the vast majority of which did not lead to humans and our food. Your theory of God’s purpose (solely to create humans plus our food) and method (to individually design every life form, econiche etc, including all those that did NOT lead to humans) is not history but your personal INTERPRETATION of history, which is so illogical that you cannot explain it yourself.

DAVID: I interpret it as God's works, which is not illogical if one believes in a designer. Your psychiatric view of my mind's decisions is patently absurd. I don't explain God's actions. I attempt to interpret them, using a view of God, whose characteristics you won't accept.

We are not talking about characteristics here, but about the history and your interpretation of the history (see bold below), and it is your interpretation that you cannot explain, which is why you tell me to go and ask God!

Dhw: You claim that every past ecosystem was preparation for/part of “the goal of evolving [= designing] humans” and our food, and “the creation of a diversity of life is an absolute requirement for the evolutionary process to finally produce humans.” And you have no idea why the creation of 3.x billion years’ worth of mainly extinct organisms and ecosystems was absolutely necessary for your all-powerful God to produce the only species (plus food) that he wanted to produce.

DAVID: Your offhand 'plus food' shows your lack of understanding. It is so simple: God chose to evolve humans over much time for his own reasons. Ecosystems provided necessary required food along the way. You simply criticize God's method.

I am not criticizing God’s method. I am criticizing your theory (a) that he individually designed every life form and food supply for every life form, and (b) he did so as preparation for humans and our food supply, though you agree that past food bushes were for the past, and extinct life has no role in current time. You also agree yet again that you yourself can’t find any reason for this combination of theories, and so I suggest that your God’s reasons for and/or method of creating the history of life may NOT be the reasons and method you impose on him.

DAVID: How can the past also be part of the present? Evolution is a pure continuum.

Evolution is a continuum that branched out into vast numbers of life forms and econiches, most of which are now extinct and were NOT a continuum from bacteria to humans and our current econiches. It is therefore illogical to claim that every single one must have been specially designed as preparation for us humans and our econiches.

Dhw: […] if Adler suggests that God having “feelings” is 50/50, it is plainly absurd to discount the possibility that God has “feelings”.

DAVID: I said 50/50. Not a discount.

You refuse to accept any alternative theory of evolution which entails your God having “feelings”. You cling to Adler, but he says there’s a 50/50 chance that your God does have feelings, in which case your one and only reason for rejecting my alternatives goes against Adler, who says there’s a 50/50 chance that your one and only objection is wrong.

dhw: Please tell us where Darwin states that the gaps are due to God’s intervention by designing species with no precursors.

DAVID: Relax. All I pointed out was Darwin's worry about the Cambrian gap, which his theory could not explain.

You said he agreed with you. He didn’t. He thought the most likely reason for the gaps was the incompleteness of the fossil record.

DAVID: The gaps are phenotypical, but jumps in form can only indicate the design of an active designer, no matter how you attempt to distort the point.

dhw: I am not distorting the point! You use the gaps here to prove your God’s existence, but if there are gaps and humans are descended from species designed without precursors, then you cannot claim that there is an unbroken line between bacteria and humans, in which case it makes no sense to say that God’s purpose from the beginning was to create humans.

DAVID: God's designing role certainly explains the gaps in form from bacteria to humans. Makes perfect sense with an uncritical view of God.

You want an uncritical view of your theories, which you yourself cannot explain. Your answer simply ignores the contradiction I have now bolded.