Unanswered questions (General)

by dhw, Wednesday, August 28, 2019, 08:19 (1674 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: The fact that H. sapiens is the latest species does not mean that your always-in-control God started out with the one and only purpose of creating us, or that he decided not to design the only thing he wanted to design until 3.X billion years had passed and therefore he had to cover the time in between by designing every other life form extant and extinct so that they could eat or be eaten by one another. I am delighted that you now agree that these are nonsense ideas. You have been promoting them for months and months, and they are encapsulated in the following statement:
DAVID: “He knew those designs were required interim goals to establish the necessary food supply to cover the time He knew he had decided to take.”

DAVID: Misinterpreted. I mean God knew a great length of time was to be involved and took that time to do all the evolving required. By 'covering time' I mean using it, not inventing creations just to pass time.

dhw: 1) According to you he had DECIDED to take that great length of time (not he knew it would take that long), and for 3.X billion years he designed nothing but non-human life forms (so he never even started “evolving” us). Why, if his one and only goal was to design us?

DAVID: Remember, Evolution requires starting with simple forms and finally reaching the most complex. It is a continuous process, and your comment implies He should have jumped to his goal. My answer above covers this.

As usual you start with an obvious truth and leave out all the bits of your theory that defy even your own logic. My answer is quite explicit: if his one and only goal was to “evolve” H. sapiens, it makes no sense at all to have him decide NOT to begin “evolving” H. sapiens, but instead to evolve billions of non-human life forms extant and extinct to keep life going until he “evolved” the only thing he wanted to “evolve”. (NB for you “evolve” = individually design).

DAVID: Econiches for food supply are an essential part of the process and you always dismiss them as "coming and going', which is true but totally and irrationally beside the point.

Yes, econiches are essential for EVERY form of life. That does not mean your God had to specially design econiches for billions of non-human life forms, lifestyles and natural wonders because he had decided to wait 3.X billion years before evolving the only species he wanted to evolve.

dhw: Thank you for at last agreeing that all this is nonsense.

DAVID: Your nonsense, not mine.

You wrote: "'Covering time' is a nonsense notion since that is the time evolution took to reach the level of humans. And another nonsense idea is 'eating each other' as if it was not an absolute requirement in the process." Your own thought processes are not quite clear here, but it was you who wrote that all these other designs were “required” to provide food “to cover” the time he had “decided to take”. That is your nonsense, not mine.

DAVID: And I think it is totally logical that God chose to evolve all life, ending with humans. I have never understood why you think it is illogical.

dhw: I don’t. It’s the rest of your theory that is illogical, as you keep admitting when you say you have no idea why your God chose the evolutionary method you impose on him […] and you therefore have to fall back on the claim that God’s logic is not ours! Why does God’s logic have to be different from ours if your theory is so logical?

DAVID: How can I know why God makes the choices He does make?

Wrong question. How can you know God’s choices? It is you who insist that he CHOSE or “decided” to take 3.X billion years before starting the process of designing the only thing he wanted to design.

DAVID: Adler warns His logic may not be like ours. You constantly humanize God.

Do please stop quoting Adler, as if somehow that gave some sort of logic to your “nonsense”. It is no defence of that “nonsense” to claim that my alternatives humanize God. Either your theory is nonsense or it isn’t. If you can’t explain it, I don't think you can expect me or anyone else to lend it credence on the grounds that maybe God’s logic is different from yours and ours!


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