Miscellany (General)

by David Turell , Thursday, September 02, 2021, 18:33 (968 days ago) @ dhw

Part One

DAVID: You know full well my constant position is cells follow God's instructions to do their work. The 'ability' you cited and I praised includes the understanding of the instructions. Cells don't think. And with the instructions to be followed God does not have to intervene any further.

dhw: And so you accepted the first “portion” after all (God gave instructions), and the ABILITY to recognize and respond without your God’s intervention actually meant the ability to follow God’s instructions, which apparently do not count as an intervention. Your use of language really takes some getting used to. We can drop the subject for the time being. I have now understood that when you say autonomy, you mean following instructions.

Exactly.

New amphibious whale

dhw: I would suggest that if your God exists, he is perfectly capable of giving cells the autonomous ability to change their own structures in order to adapt to or exploit new conditions. This is no less “fantastic” than your 3.8-billion-year-old computer programme for every single evolutionary change, or the theory that your God pops in to perform all the necessary operations for every single evolutionary change, and to issue instructions for every single problem.

DAVID: Your theory of God-given cell intelligence involves much more complex design than straight design by the designer himself, especially if a desired endpoint (humans) is present. But I know you have no idea why we are here. You just accept it without reason.

dhw: I have no idea what your first sentence means. Why could your God not have “straightly” designed the intelligence of cells? And why do you think he was incapable of making them intelligent enough to form all the combinations that have resulted in all the different life forms, including humans? Why are you trying to limit the powers of your all-powerful God?

The first sentence we have covered before: A designer directly using His mental powers to design is much easier to accomplish than teaching cells how to design a required design to cover future needs for the next species.

dhw: As for “you have no idea why we are here”, do please tell us. In the past you have suggested that he wanted us to recognize and admire his work, and perhaps to have a relationship with us. Nice and human. I’ve suggested that maybe he created all life forms because he enjoys creating and watching his creations, and a free-for-all is more interesting than a puppet show, and the human free-for-all is the most interesting one to watch. But you dismiss the theory because my human proposal is somehow more human than your human proposal. Anyway, do please give us your other reasons for why we are here.

It all revolves about our unique exceptional mental powers, which mirror His in some way and for His own reasons He created us. And then we guess at His reasons as you describe. I see His obvious purposeful activity, and try to go no further.