Return to David's theory of evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Friday, August 12, 2022, 17:54 (832 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The past certainly has a role of producing the present.
And
Past forms produced us and our food supply by evolving into us.

dhw: Of course it does/they did, in the form of those branches of evolution that led to us and our food. But your trick is to ignore all those past forms which did NOT evolve into us and our food, although you believe your God designed each and every one of them as preparation and indeed an “absolute requirement” for us and our food. So please stop dodging.

My belief is not a dodge, but analyzes in a way you do not. All of evolution is God's designs and all of those branches which did not lead to us created the huge food supply we need now.

DAVID: I accept what God did and you don't is the reason we debate. What I think about God makes sense to me even if you can't accept it.

dhw: Please stop pretending that your THEORY about what God did and why is what God did and why. You claim that he designed countless life forms and ecosystems that had no connection with humans plus food, although humans plus food were his only purpose. And you claim that he created some species with no precursors, and so you can’t understand why he created us in stages. You say that these theories “make sense only to God”, and that means they do not make sense to you. Please stop dodging.

I observe what God did and accept it. I don't have to know His reasons, but you demand them!!! We are not supposed to understand God fully, remember.

dhw: How does that come to mean he has created love which does not actually mean love?

DAVID: Of course, He gave us the ability to love, but His personal form of love may differ from ours.

dhw: So are you saying that we invented a form of the emotion of love that he knew nothing about? Once more, if he knows love and every other emotion, what do you mean by love and every other emotion being “allegorical”?

Constant misinterpretation. God's form of His own emotion of love may parallel ours but may not be exactly like our form. Samo old allegory approach, of course. And God knows exactly about our form of love. Why did you pose that question?

dhw: I have included various thought patterns and emotions we have both listed, plus your God's very human desire for recognition and a relationship..... Unfortunately, your version has him incomprehensibly NOT pursuing his single purpose, because he spends 3.X billion years specially designing lots of different things that are not connected with his purpose, but in any case, why do you think your single-minded God is less human than my more open-minded God?

DAVID: By describing your God as open-minded that means not clearly determined to follow His planned purposes as I view my verson of God who knows exactly what He wants to do and follows His plan without changing his mind.

dhw: If his plan was to create the free-for-all which seems to characterize the incessant comings and goings of life’s history, he knew what he wanted to do and followed his plan. But in any case, why do you think a single-minded designer (don’t forget the manner in which you compared yourself to him when talking of design) is less human than an experimental scientist, or an artist coming up with new ideas as he goes along?

The comparison to humans shows immediately how you humanize God in your imagination.

dhw: Whatever may have been your God’s purpose and method would make sense to him, and of course he can create any way he wishes. However, the wishes and ways you impose on him make no sense to you or to me, and your love of Adler does not make your theories any more intelligible.

DAVID: Not intelligent to you, but to Adler. His approach in proving God involves the study of evolution which produced us, by assuming God caused evolution and how it reached us under His control.

dhw: Intelligible – not intelligent. I’m sorry, but I can only repeat that if your theories of evolution “make sense only to God”, no amount of Adler worship is going to make them intelligible to anyone.

Adler's works are highly respected world-wide. He advised the Catholic Church as a philosopher of religion!!!