Return to David's theory of evolution PARTS ONE & TWO (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, April 04, 2023, 12:15 (381 days ago) @ David Turell

We are still grappling with David’s belief that his God’s only purpose was to design us and our food, and therefore he deliberately designed 99 out of 100 species that had no connection with us and our food, and designed them in such a way that they would not survive.

dhw: So why did he bother to design them in the first place? Your answer: “for unknown reasons”, and your theories “make sense only to God”. i.e. not even to you.

DAVID: As a believer I simply accept what God did without your skepticism.

No you don’t. You simply accept your own totally illogical theory about what your God did and why he did it.

DAVID: Experimentation means at the beginning God didn't know how to reach His goals. Not like any all-knowing God as described. My God knows from the beginning.

You’ve got it! Your God knows from the beginning, and so you have absolutely no idea why he would have designed countless life forms that had no connection with his one and only goal. It doesn’t make sense. So according to you, your God is an inefficient, cumbersome and messy designer. Alternatively, his one and only goal was not us and our food, and there are logical reasons for the 99%, or if we were his goal, he is not all-knowing but is a learning God who experiments. Progress at last!

DAVID: He can precisely produce a universe fine-tuned-for life, create early life which has highly complex biochemistry and then suddenly is muddled as to how to go forward?

dhw: No muddle, as above. Only your theory is a muddle. As regards the universe, on Saturday you quoted Siegel: “We don’t know if our Universe is finite or infinite in extent; we only know that its physical size must be greater than the portion we can observe. We don’t know whether our Universe encompasses all that exists.” Nor do we know, then, that the whole universe is fine-tuned for life. I keep asking why you think your God had to design billions of galaxies in order to produce ours. Your answer is the same as when I ask you why he would have to create 99 irrelevant species out of 100: you have no idea. Only God knows.

DAVID: Siegel is following the space research which will hopefully answer your skeptical questions about God's intentions for an enormous universe.

Yes, you can’t think of a single reason to justify your theory, but you hope that somehow someone will prove that it’s correct.

DAVID: As usual you have imagined a highly humanized high inconsistent God.

dhw:. I have answered your “humanizing” complaint over and over again, the last time being yesterday: “You also dismiss alternative theistic theories (which you admit fit in with the history of life) because although you believe your God has thought patterns and emotions like ours, you don’t think he has thought patterns and emotions like ours (except for some, like enjoyment and interest, but you’d rather forget those).”

DAVID: Long ago I agreed God has emotions, in His own way similar to ours.

And thought patterns too. Thank you for confirming that this is your belief. So please stop complaining that my logical theories are wrong because they contain thought patterns and emotions similar to ours.

DAVID: God did not kill them off. Bad luck did, per Raup.

dhw: If your all-knowing God deliberately designed them with limited adaptability, then he obviously knew his design would result in their non-survival! That's why you wrote that he is responsible for the mess. And it was their bad luck that your God deliberately designed them so that they would go extinct.

dhw: I’ve left this in, as you gave no answer.

You then switch to your usual escape route of what Adler has to say on the subject, although in fact he has nothing to say on the subject.

DAVID: You refuse to accept that Adler accepted evolution as God's choice of action.

If God exists, you, Adler and I all accept that evolution would have been his choice of action, because we all believe evolution happened!

DAVID: The fact that God didn't control every tiny or large element of the environment but was able to produce miraculous humans shows His innate powers.

Nobody would deny that if your God exists, he has innate powers, which are evident from the existence of all life. This has absolutely nothing to do with your illogical theories about your God’s one and only purpose and the inefficient, cumbersome, messy image of him that you present.