More Denton: Reply to David (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, August 15, 2015, 08:36 (3178 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Don't you think the arrival of sentient beings that can study and understand the workings of their universe as very surprising result? I do.-I do indeed, and I would even go so far as to agree with you that we are the most surprising result so far, though who knows what the next 3.8 billion years might produce? But the amazing catalogue of Nature's Wonders with which for years now you have entertained and educated us are proof for you of divine design. You even ask us: by chance? So how can you then tell us God's purpose in creating life and evolution was to produce humans? Why would he design all these wonders if they were not part of his purpose? (I am of course arguing here with my theist's hat on. If I put on my atheist's hat, I will say there is no purpose beyond that of each individual organism, but that does not in any way lessen the sheer wonder of Nature's Wonders, including ourselves.)-dhw: So let me speculate on your evolutionary hypothesis. If God hurled Chicxulub, he must have preprogrammed the survivors to survive, knowing from the start that he was going to hurl it; or it was a sudden impulse (“Damn those dastardly dinosaurs!”) so he did a quick dabble to ensure the survivors survived. Otherwise, he'd have lost control, wouldn't he? And his control of evolution is essential to your hypothesis. But if he didn't hurl it, he had lost control anyway. Phew, lucky for the weaverbird and us that some little critter got through carrying our programmes. (See also "Reply to Tony".)-DAVID: As I analyze your thoughts all this happened as everything drifted along, but again you cover yourself by not accepting a chance mechanism.-Do you accept my analysis of your evolutionary hypothesis? If not, please tell me what is wrong with it. As for my own speculations, I would suggest that the environment “drifts along”, i.e. Chixculub was a chance event, and that the cell communities of organisms apply their respective forms/degrees of “intelligence” to coping with the changes or even to exploiting them, but in many cases their “intelligence” is not up to the task and like the dinosaurs they die. These different “intelligences” would have evolved from the earliest cells, diversifying and complexifying as cells linked up in all their different combinations to form new organisms and to cope with new environments. No overall plan, but life branching out in all directions as individual intelligences follow their own paths to survival and/or improvement or, sadly, extinction. This scenario does not exclude your God, who may have set it all in motion. Why? As you repeatedly tell us, we cannot read his mind.