Return to David's theory of evolution, purpose & theodicy (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 31, 2024, 20:56 (16 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Do you understand what I write? God's selflessness means He requires nothing for Himself from what He creates. Can we attribute our human characteristics to God? Yes, in an allegorical way not knowing how they apply to God who is not human. The problem is yours.

dhw: I know what selflessness means. But when you suggested that your God enjoyed creating, was interested in his creations, and might want us to recognize and worship him, you knew exactly what you meant, and you were proposing that he might have attributes which are NOT SELFLESS. This contradicts your belief that he is selfless and therefore they CANNOT apply to him. Hence your confession that your beliefs are “schizophrenic”.

I stick to my principles. I may propose but with the qualifications as above! Not schizophrenic.

DAVID: As I view God there are no contradictions. I start with the rigid principle; God is not human in any way. Do we reflect Him in some ways? Possibly.

dhw: If he is not human in any way, how can we possibly reflect him in some ways???

Allegorically.

DAVID: Does He care about us? 50/50.

dhw: But you have stated categorically that you reject deism because “God made us. He must care about the results." That = 100% he cares. And above you say he is not human in any way, but caring is a human attribute, in which case you say he must be 100% non-caring.

All picking at guesswork. I answer, you pick, pick. I can't ask you, because you are empty.

99.9% v 0.1%

DAVID: Nonsense! We are part of the current 0.1% surviving. Our great-grand parents are in the 99.9% extinct.

dhw: Our great-grandparents are dead, but our species is still going strong, and is directly descended from the 0.1% of species that survived Raup’s extinctions. The 99.9% of extinct species includes those of our ancestral species (e.g. all the hominids and homos) that have disappeared. Are you still pretending that 696 dinosaur species which had no descendants are our ancestors?

Part of a group of the extinct. You can't torture Raup's 99.9% and 0.1% into a sliver of dinos. His are overall statistics to be understood as he did.

DAVID: Our best view of evolution started with the Cambrian animals which produced the start of all our existing phyla.

dhw: Thank you for continuing to confirm your belief that none of the species that preceded the Cambrian produced the species that exist today. So how could 99.9% of them have “produced” today’s species?

DAVID: The sum of all evolved organisms from the Cambrian onward: 99.9% are the ancestors of the current 0.1%,

dhw: So now you have your God designing 100% of species unconnected with us and our food for 3000,000,000 years, and you have 696 dinosaur species as the ancestors of current species although they had no descendants. This apparently proves that 99.9% of all the creatures that ever lived were the ancestors of us and our food, although you agree that we and our contemporaries are descended only from the 0.1% of survivors! But you never contradict yourself!

The 99.9% developed the 0.1% now living.