(October 24, 2014 at 1:01 am)Chas Wrote:(October 23, 2014 at 6:47 pm)datc Wrote: A bug flies into a room through the open door, and starts fluttering about wildly, obviously hoping that these (mostly) random motions will, with a bit of luck, allow it to find the door and get back outside.
If the bug were smarter, it might be able to find its way out by thinking. But it's stupid, so it relies on the primitive random path generator to escape the trap of the room. Yet for all that, it may nevertheless succeed, which means that randomness is a form of intelligence.
No, it doesn't. That makes no sense on any level.
Sure it does.
Suppose you are tasked with opening a safe whose combination is unknown to you. Employing a strategy of trying random combinations until you get the right one will succeed. Randomness will solve the problem.
In the broadest sense, intelligence is the ability to navigate a reality. A being which tries random paths until it gets the right one navigates reality....it is able to deal with a novel situation...it is in a small sense...intelligent.
Understanding what intelligence is helps us to understand something about God. DATC if you read this post, consider the following argument.
Premise 1. Intelligence is the ability to navigate a reality.
Premise 2. In order to navigate a reality, that reality must exist.
Premise 3. God is and always has been intelligent.
Conclusion: Therefore God has always existed in a reality.
What does it say about the nature of God?
