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

by David Turell , Saturday, April 08, 2023, 17:02 (593 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID:[…] The differences in us is each of our God's personalities. Mine is full of purpose, all-knowing, totally omniscient, and thus does everything exactly as He wishes.

dhw: Mine is full of purpose and does exactly as he wishes, but is not all-knowing. Yours wishes only to create us and our food and wishes to use a method which he knows is inefficient, cumbersome and messy, and you don’t know why he would choose to be such an inefficient, cumbersome and messy designer.

Since when is God conceived as not all-knowing? This is a distinct contradiction to what most religion believe. That version leads you to create your very humanized God.

DAVID: Your guy is unrecognizable as a God. He HAS to experiment, allows free-for-alls to advance evolution uncontrollably, and as fun for Him to watch and enjoy, and, as you've described, He is not sure to create as humans.

dhw: Yours HAS to use an inefficient, cumbersome, messy method to achieve his goal. Mine doesn’t HAVE to experiment – he WANTS to experiment, either in order to create a being with thought patterns and emotions like his own, or to discover the full potential of his wonderful invention. Alternatively, instead of experimenting directly, he WANTS to create and watch a free-for-all (though he can intervene if he wishes). And he enjoys creating, as YOU have described, and is interested in watching his creations, as YOU have described. A perfectly understandable purpose for creating life in the first place.

DAVID: As for goal our extraordinary brain, the most complex item in the universe makes US THAT GOAL. Exactly Adler's point.

dhw: So all the other less complex life forms, 99% of which had no connection with us and our food, were deliberately designed for no reason you can think of, as a result of which your God is to be mocked as an inefficient, cumbersome, messy designer.

DAVID: NO!!! They were designed as part of an evolutionary system that is historical and, in my view, created by God. They were absolutely necessary as part of screening and culling.

dhw: Yes, your God – if he exists – created the historical system of evolution. But why was screening and culling (i.e. the creation and destruction of species irrelevant to his one and only purpose) necessary for your all-powerful, all-knowing God to create the only species he wanted to create? You have no idea. It makes no sense. Therefore there must have been another reason for his creation of the 99%. I have offered you three logical reasons, and two of them even incorporate your idea of his purpose (a being with thought patterns and emotions like his own).

You strain to make your imitation God really God-like, but the effort falls short, as I view God. Evolution as it is, makes perfect sense to me as I accept God as perfect in what He chooses to do.

DAVID: Again, a so-called God who doesn't know how to make a human!!! God chose to evolve step-by-step so the biochemistry has to be developed that way.

dhw: Again a so-called God who knows precisely how to make a human (plus food) and therefore designs 99 out of 100 species that have nothing to do with humans (plus food), thereby proving himself to be an inefficient, cumbersome, messy designer who, being omniscient, knows just how inefficient and cumbersome and messy he is.

Reply as above: Evolution as it is, makes perfect sense to me as I accept God as perfect in what He chooses to do.