Ed Feser's Aristotelian Proof of the Existence of God

[bennyboy]

It's possible, useful, and there is a mechanism for propagating and then refining what is possible and useful on this planet. How's that for a how and why?

Not very good, in my opinion, since it explains niether how nor why there is mind.

And what's this "useful" stuff? Useful to whom? To a thinking organism?

If you want to go with evolution, I'd start at the atomic level-- some atoms happen to stick well to others and form molecules in certain environments. Some molecules happen to stick together to form simple proteins, etc. up to Mozart. But at no step in this chain is anything useful-- it's better to say that "it just so happens that _____." It's mind which establishes usefulness, not usefulness which establishes mind.