If God exists, why did he create life? (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by dhw, Sunday, December 19, 2010, 18:13 (5087 days ago) @ George Jelliss

We have a neat sequence of observations here:-GEORGE: If a creator or first cause of the universe exists, or existed, it does not necessarily follow that it also created life. Life could just be an accidental byproduct.-One of the most powerful arguments for a UI is that life is too complex to have fashioned itself by accident. One of the most powerful arguments against a UI is that it must be even more complex than what it created, so how the heck did IT come into existence?-DAVID: I think He is pure organized energy as an intelligence, not a life form.-I hope George will comment on this. If I were an atheist, I would have no trouble identifying the universe as "organized energy", but I would say that it is self-organizing, and that it does not CONSCIOUSLY create anything. This, I think, is the key difference between theism and atheism. Once you attribute conscious intelligence to the creative power, you enter the realm of speculation about its nature.-ROMANSH: If there is a god ... I have absolutely no clue why it would do anything, never mind create life. All I can do [is] anthropomorphize its intents.-We're all in the same position, but just as we humans could scarcely create any form of Artificial Intelligence that was not based on our own, it doesn't seem unreasonable to suppose that our own intelligence might reflect that of the being that (may have) created us. I would therefore suggest that anthropomorphization is not necessarily out of line, and in any case if we accept the possibility of a god (which I do, as an agnostic), how else can we speculate on its nature other than through what we ourselves know of the world?
 
Satyansh says his friends laugh at the western preoccupation with God. George has been admirably restrained in his latest comments, but I'm sure he's also chuckling. Fortunately, with my own non-commitment, I too am able to devote 99% of myself to the (for me) wonderfully enjoyable occupation of living my life. One needs a sense of perspective, and whether there is or isn't a God or an afterlife, the here and now is all we're sure of, and I aim to make the most of it. That is why I shall be incommunicado for a fortnight, weather permitting.