On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 18:57:25 GMT, "Don H"
bigpond.com> wrote:
>>
>> adl wrote:
>>> dont get fooled by the title, im am not trying to be redundant.
>>>
>>> it strikes me that so little people think of the possibility of
>>> evolution being created by god. in that view, god created a factory
>>> (this world) which would therefore produce whatever creatures he
>>> wanted. so if he wanted animal x, y and z, he just set the initial
>>> conditions so that the end results would be, after many millennia, x, y,
>>> z.
>>>
>>> of course, there is nothing supporting this idea, nor refuting it.
>>
>> Another view is that "reality" is really a large experiment being run
>> by an extra-universal intelligence (God, if you like). The universe may
>> not be much more than a hyper-complex version of Sims.
>>
>> This isn't a new idea. The metaphysical view in the Kabbalah depicts
>> the universe as a seies of creations, in each "God" withdrawing a
>> particular "aspect" of perfection as an "experiment" to see what the
>> results are. Supposedly the withdrawn element in this universe is the
>> requirement to adhere to "divine law" (i.e. the introduction of "free
>> will").
>>
>> If one views the universe as a "divine experiment" then of course
>> evolution and God are compatible. Not only can God be the creator of
>> the initial conditions, but God can be experimenting to see what the
>> outcome is as well.
>>
># There may be an Intelligence behind Phenomena but there is no evidence for
>it. Any given Universe must operate according to certain "laws", if it is
>to be dynamic and not static, and such laws must be consistent in their
>functioning. As to purpose, there is no evidence of this, only causal
>consequences, of which the production of increasing complexity, resulting in
>an ape with a large cerebral cortex, is purely a random fact.
> Any Deity need not be anthropomorphic, but could be a bug-eyed monster
>with a sadistic sense of humour - as most life preys on other life - and
>could, as alleged, have set the whole machinery in motion. Thus Deism,
>instead of Theism.
> As the extinction of Homo Sapiens seems imminent (within the next decade
>or so) due to over-population of planet Earth, no great significance should
>be placed on demise of yet one more species, us. Nature, God, or whatever,
>will go on, as before, but without ourselves being present.
>
Good perspective!
My hope is that a Singularity will occur sooner than later,
but even that doesn't matter. The Drake equation estimates
about 1,000 independent interesting life forms in the Milky Way
galaxy alone, today. There are billions of similar galaxies.
The human point of view on the situation seems limited and
constrained. The others are probably similar. We need to meet them.
"Purpose", as we humans consider, may well be idiosyncratic
to our human limits and constraints.
In the meanwhile, we need our stories, that's a way our brain is
structured. Even situation personification stories, such as god
stories, help meet those needs.
