Ashvin said,
I like the idea that I believe you proposed before - that physical objects as we perceive them are useful icons for a more complicated reality of thoughts and processes.
Me too. Isn't that part of Plato's thoughts about the perfect form versus what we perceive?
It is God's way of providing us with a "software platform" which allows us to interact with our environment and with Him, without getting overwhelmed by the complexity of it all.
I think where humans get sidetracked is on God's MOTIVE in creating Homo SAPS.
This forum has a rather difficult time getting to some agreement that God exists at all, never mind His motive for creating us.
But if we COULD get to the MOTIVE, it would clear up the FACT that we do not have.
or ever will have (
while our spirit resides in a physical body) the ability to truly understand God.
However, we can, as RE has done (and I think Aristotle and Plato did as well), conclude that the complexity and marvelous repetition of extremely efficient and beautiful designs in nature bespeaks of a MEGA intelligence responsible for all of it.
The fact that we are here, as Aquinas postulated, is sufficient evidence for a PROVIDENTIAL God. But, sadly, that is not enough for many Homo SAPS. They want the big dog to give them an explanation for all the bad stuff that goes on. Otherwise, they assume it's a random bunch of chemicals playing biochemical pinball.
I consider that a very arrogant and egotistical posture. Just BECAUSE we are self aware, it certainly does not mean everything God does has to be "logical" or even "good" or "bad" from our thoroughly limited data base.
A mosquito has far more moving parts and is infinitely more complex, as well as being totally biosphere friendly than the 100,000 plus parts B747. The B747 is a piece of DEAD, UNSUSTAINABLE, POLLUTING JUNK compared with a mosquito. Why TF can't these arrogant folks who sniff at a creator God use some no-brainner perspective about how incredibly IGNORANT and CRUDE mankind's technology is compared with the bio-machines God created?
My only answer to that is the scientific community's 24/7 agnotology. That is, they lowball the complexity of living organisms and inflate, out of all proportion, GMO or other tehcnological tiny microscopic droplet sized incursions into a veritable OCEAN of biosphere complexity. But scientists have their "priesthood" to defend so the sales pitch (we will solve ALL HUMAN PROBLEMS - just wait and see...
) continues.
IF they had solved more than 0.0000000001 % (I'm being conservative - the number is probably a lot lower!) of problems dealing with cause and effect in biochemistry from the micro to the macro level, to the point that they COULD assemble living bacteria from chemicals in the lab, never mind more complex organisms, I would give them credit for having a logical a basis for their celebration of replacing the God "superstition" with "science".
But they can't create the simplest life! And what they have done in the lab with GMOs is DEFINITELY not random! It can be argued that the GMO stuff is UNintelliigent design, but it is NOT random.
In fact, many of the so-called "advancements" in science in the 20th century made everything WORSE! But don't tell that to the Palloys and McCaffertys! They will ridicule you or be highly offended at your "silly" premises. LOL!