David's theory of evolution Part Two (Evolution)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 24, 2019, 11:31 (1585 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I believe God chose to evolve us. Since God is in charge history tells us what He did.

And history tells us that if your God exists, for 3.X billion years he “chose to evolve” a vast bush of non-human life forms, econiches etc., as described earlier. History does not tell us that this whole bush was specially designed as an “interim goal” to keep life going because your God had decided not to pursue his one and only goal (H. sapiens) for 3.X billion years.

dhw: This theory is only logical if, in your own words, “one does not apply human reasoning to the actual history”.

DAVID: What I have constantly said is we cannot know the reasons behind God's choice of purpose.

We cannot even "know" if God exists. If he does, of course we cannot "know" his purpose, let alone the reason for his purpose, but you keep insisting that you do know it, and any logical alternative to your own illogical theory is to be discounted because it humanizes God although God “very well could think like us.”

DAVID: How about using my current words, not old quotes out of context?

They are not out of context. They refer directly to the theory which you keep propounding! But now, instead of explicitly admitting its illogicality, you claim that we cannot know God’s reasons for choosing your version of his purpose and method but they are logical even if you can’t explain his logic. And are you now saying categorically that you know your God does not have any features in common with us?

dhw: The itty-bitty gradualism you attribute to God’s method of designing H. sapiens is precisely the mode of evolution you keep condemning.

DAVID: The 8 million year steps to H. sapiens were not tiny as in 200 cc brain size jumps!!!!

I am referring to all the different twiddly stages revealed by all the fossils of all the different types of hominin and homo over millions of years leading from ape to sapiens.

dhw: The actual history (the bush of life) is open to all kinds of interpretations, and you have admitted that the theistic alternatives I have offered are logical. But you simply refuse to consider them because you have formed the fixed belief that your illogical interpretation of the history and of your God’s thinking [...] is correct.

DAVID: And I will say again , the complexity of life logically requires a designer. Evolution proceeds only through design by a designer. Without a purposeful God behind all of history, one can begin to imagine all sorts of amorphous possibilities conjured up by humanized reasoning which all human brains do. All is logical if God is accepted.

I don’t know how often you want me to repeat that I accept the logic of your design argument, and I accept the logic that if there is a God, he will be purposeful. But your human brain with its “humanized reasoning” has come up with a highly personal theory concerning your God’s purpose (H. sapiens), nature (an all-knowing control freak) and method (the decision to spend 3.X billion years doing anything but fulfil his purpose). That is what is not logical, and – once more - after admitting it is not logical, you now switch to saying that we can’t know his reasoning and so we should accept your illogical interpretation of it without considering any logical alternative.

(***DAVID (under “Cambrian explosion"): Some scientists may be doubtful, but logic tells us if eyes are present and limbs that must have moved are found, there was a nervous system to run the show. And this means, most significantly, a complete nervous system appeared with no precursors. Darwin's Cambrian gap strikes again!!)

DAVID: Which Edicaran cell committees designed the Cambrian creatures?

Since you believe in common descent, tell us which Edicaran cell communities your God preprogrammed or dabbled with in order to produce the Cambrian innovations. You told us on the Shapiro thread that these could only be stem cells or germ cells. I’m not going to argue.