Goldylocks zone planet: very few must exist (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, March 15, 2017, 13:36 (2602 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: If He is all-powerful then He shouldn't have to use evolutionary processes. So perhaps it is a choice, not a necessity.
dhw:So either a) he has the power and knowledge to design every single life form, lifestyle and natural wonder, but has to wait 3.X billion years until he is able to dabble the one thing he really wants: the pre-human brain (but you discount him experimenting – he just knows he can’t do it until he can do it); or b) he chooses to design every single life form, lifestyle and natural wonder because he wants to, and not because he can’t yet dabble the human brain.
DAVID: That is the most garbled interpretation of my thoughts I've seen. All I've noted is above. It is possible He chooses to use evolution for all creations, and then waits until what He expects to develop appears. None of your convolutions.
That is choice (a): he could design all creations except the human brain, so tell us what he expected (he’s now a soothsayer instead of a designer) that enabled him to do what he wanted to do but was unable to do earlier.

DAVID: He always has the ability if it is His choice.
That is choice (b).

DAVID: Whether He has limits is possible, but like the entire discussion, we don't know.
That is choice (a) again.

dhw:… and enter confusion: if he CAN do it, why DOESN’T he do it? (Possible answer: because he wants the ever changing spectacle, and maybe humans are just an afterthought. Can you think of another answer?)
DAVID: All you are describing is your own convoluted confusion. Simply accept the fact that He chooses evolution as his process without limitations. He has the right to any choices He chooses.

But you are offering me a choice of evolution with limitations versus evolution without limitations, as above, and one makes sense to you while the other doesn’t.

DAVID: Either way it follows that He waited until our solar system appeared and arranged for life to appear.
dhw: Which makes him just as reliant on chance as our atheist friends. You realized that, of course, and came up with your afterthought, in which – also in company with our atheist friends – you have lots of other living worlds.
DAVID: If He controls or guides evolution there is no chance.

Precisely. So why do you say he waited until our solar system “appeared”? Your answer is your second hypothesis: that he may have designed all the systems with a view to creating lots of life forms. So then you will have to jettison your “waited until our solar system appeared”. More confusion.

DAVID: Multiple worlds with multiple humans is something we cannot know, but also something to be considered.
dhw: Agreed. And either he is in control or he isn’t. That is “something we cannot know”, as is the history of life’s evolution, and the existence of God, and God’s purposes and nature. But oddball theist and pure agnostic, we are united in our quest for enlightenment, and long may we continue to jostle along with each other!
DAVID: Right on!

Agreement at last!