Contingent evolution (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Monday, June 30, 2014, 22:58 (3588 days ago) @ dhw

**Sorry, I did not see this until after I wrote my other post.->DHW: I'm sorry if I've forgotten your acknowledgement of "cellular intelligence" elsewhere. It wasn't mentioned in your list, and I would certainly not have put it under the category of guided evolution. -Internal guidance is no less guidance than that which is externally imposed. Read up on group psychology. One of the interesting thing is how information and guidance is passed both up and down the chain. ->DHW: Even if your God endowed the first forms of life with these mechanisms (and I have left the question of origins open), I would argue that they could have been left to their own devices - i.e. your God did not intervene once he had set the process in motion.-Ironically, even the bible doesn't say that he interfered with his creation AFTER he finished with his work. Where we disagree is at which point he finished.-
>DHW: Again, this provides an explanation for what I see as the higgledy-piggledy bush of evolution.-This is probably where we disagree more than anything. You see a higgledy-piggledy bush, I see a beautifully crafted symphony of life where each part is as elegant, graceful, and wonderful as it is strange and amazing. Each piece has its part to play, a purpose, and there is a time for every purpose under heaven. You struggle to SEE the purpose (or not to... or to simply refuse to accept as 'purpose' it until presented with a certified letter of intent.) I struggle to find the purpose, because I have yet to be presented with anything which I could not find a purpose for, and it is all the more beautiful for it.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.