Return to David's theory of evolution and theodicy (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, November 14, 2023, 19:17 (165 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: You keep ignoring my major point that everything on Earth exists to be eaten by us or used by us. Therefore, everything that was evolved was purposefully created by God as He evolved every organism ever living. Everything is connected to us!!!

dhw: You keep ignoring every self-contradiction listed above, and it’s becoming painful. 1) The fact that we late-coming humans can use everything on Earth does not explain why your God would have specially designed and had to cull 99.9 out of 100 species over 3.X thousand million years before we arrived. 2) And the fact that we can use everything on Earth does not mean that 99.9 organisms out of 100 species that ever lived on Earth were the direct ancestors of us and of those species which we now eat. And “everything is connected to us!!!” has nothing to do with direct ancestry, and is only true because everything is connected to everything else on Planet Earth because everything on Planet Earth depends on Planet Earth for its existence. Will you never stop dodging?

DAVID: Sorry for your pain. Will you never stop complaining about the fact God evolved us. We are the current and probably the final endpoint of evolution. All of Earth's contents are for our resources now. Believing God evolved us allows that conclusion.

dhw: If God exists, I have no complaint about his evolving us, and as there has been no further evolution so far, I have no complaint at our being called the current endpoint, or about the contents of the Earth being resources that we can use. Even if God does not exist, the same can be said about us and the contents of the Earth. My pain is caused by the fact that you continue to repeat general truths and to ignore all the details that make your theories so totally irrational and self-contradictory. See points 1 and 2 which I have now bolded and am forced to repeat below:

DAVID: We know our direct line as we look back from our place among the 0.1% surviving.

dhw: Again, no disagreement. That does not mean that 99.9 out of 100 extinct species were the direct ancestors of us and our food! You have been agreeing for years that 99.9 out of 100 species had no connection with the one and only purpose you allow your God to have (us and our food), and for years you have agreed that you have no idea why he would have specially designed and then had to cull them. But of course you can believe whatever you want to believe. It’s the constant dodging that is becoming so painful.

I have not dodged. Since I accept reality is God's work, therefore, He evolved us and everything else on Earth. We are part of the surviving 0.1%, but a part of the 99.9% were human ancestors, and the remainder were ancestors of every other organism now living. Part of your confusion is not understanding Raup's statistics for evolution. He analyzed the process to determine why extinction happened and concluded it was mainly luck. As a side effect He offered a total for extinctions since life started as 99.1%. The fact that we now run the Earth in every way we can means what exists on Earth can be used any way we wish. From a purpose standpoint, this is exactly what a designing God would create for a big brained primate.

dhw: Your inability to answer the fundamental question of theodicy after considering all the known facts, as well as your willingness to live with your ignorance, mirrors that of the agnostic’s approach to the fundamental question of God’s existence.

DAVID: The agnostic lives with ignorance?

dhw: Of course. Just as you live with your inability to answer all the fundamental questions I keep asking you – theodicy being just one of them. (You are happy and grateful although you are ignorant of “God’s reasoning” to explain your own self-contradictory theories.)

DAVID: Welcome to the wonders of faith.

dhw: We both live happily with our ignorance. The only difference is that I acknowledge mine, whereas you either hide from it or try to kid yourself that you know the truth!

I know our reality and am satisfied with it, while you are uncomfortably not. I accept God's work as is.