Logic of chance

[DD_8630]

That's an interesting point. If the creator was a non-interventionist and had no interest in whether or not life would ever arise, then your point makes a lot of sense. If however, this god has planned to create the universe for us to live in, then it (the god) would have need to know from the start exactly what forces to create and how strong each of them should be for humanity to be possible. It would have to have known the very tiny, precise measurements of the universe we're in now, if it were to plan this from an early stage (hence having to be as complex as the current universe or more).

Ah, good point. I came to a conclusion like this one time when I was in the bath (where else): to have a complete and wholly accurate model of the universe, your computer would have to be at least as complex as the universe. I then realised that this might be the universe itself: a computation running in a much larger universe. Trippy.

But, this makes assumptions about the nature of knowledge, consciousness, and power (of the omnipotent variety): how do we know that a being can't be knowledgeable and powerful and simple? I'm even tempted to bring out the old theistic argument and say that such a Creator wouldn't necessarily be bound to the same intuitive models as us ^_^

If the creator was only as complex as the initial universe, is it really a god?

And therein lies the million pound question: what is a 'god'? The only consistent definition I have heard from modern theists is that 'god' is an intelligence that created the universe. Though its methods and intentions vary from religion to religion, this seems to be constant.

But, of course, this is thrown to the dogs when one introduces pantheons and the Graceo-Roman concept of 'numen' :p