RE: Question on Theistic Evolution
October 22, 2018 at 8:59 am
(This post was last modified: October 22, 2018 at 9:02 am by Angrboda.)
Theistic evolution is an oxymoron. Evolution by definition is unguided. Presumably they mean that God caused the necessary evolutionary steps preceding the evolution of man, and, I'm guessing, that they either would not, or could not, have occurred without God's intervention. I don't see the point of it unless it is something necessarily different from naturalistic evolution in that naturalistic evolution could not have reached the ends that it did.
Last week, we had a meeting of the "God does exist?" meetup group, hosted by an evangelical Catholic. The topic of discussion was evil in the world, demons, and the devil. He made a point of saying how the fact that there was so much good in humanity simply prompted him to necessarily believe that something or someone had to be behind it. I pointed out that I see the same thing and say, "My, isn't evolution amazing!" To which he responded that he saw the same thing and wondered, "Why is it so amazing?" My response was that the current best speculation upon the matter was that it was because evolution favors processes which dissipate less total energy, i.e. those that are better at reducing entropy. To which he responded that he was again wondering "Why," like a little kid asking about the sky. Why does life constrain entropy? I didn't think of it at the time, but the answer is that processes that constrain entropy end up causing more effects, as a result of their energy misering ways, and one of those results is the further creation of similarly energy miserly processes (other organisms). Thus the why is that evolution begets more evolution whereas non-evolution does not; it's a self-perpetuating process. There's no 'why' behind it -- it's simply a logical sequence that follows like one domino causing the next one to fall. No special sauce is needed.
Last week, we had a meeting of the "God does exist?" meetup group, hosted by an evangelical Catholic. The topic of discussion was evil in the world, demons, and the devil. He made a point of saying how the fact that there was so much good in humanity simply prompted him to necessarily believe that something or someone had to be behind it. I pointed out that I see the same thing and say, "My, isn't evolution amazing!" To which he responded that he saw the same thing and wondered, "Why is it so amazing?" My response was that the current best speculation upon the matter was that it was because evolution favors processes which dissipate less total energy, i.e. those that are better at reducing entropy. To which he responded that he was again wondering "Why," like a little kid asking about the sky. Why does life constrain entropy? I didn't think of it at the time, but the answer is that processes that constrain entropy end up causing more effects, as a result of their energy misering ways, and one of those results is the further creation of similarly energy miserly processes (other organisms). Thus the why is that evolution begets more evolution whereas non-evolution does not; it's a self-perpetuating process. There's no 'why' behind it -- it's simply a logical sequence that follows like one domino causing the next one to fall. No special sauce is needed.
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