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Guest Thinkers

Design critique

Apparently the evidence of design is all around us, I just don't see it.

Let’s suppose that a transcendent deity ‘designed’ and created the universe for the sole purpose of populating it with beings ‘in his own image’ and interacting with them, acting on an impulse somewhat akin to the human urge to become a parent. Does the universe that we observe accord with this supposition?


Why would this deity create a universe over 90 billion light years across and place the object of his primary interest in an undistinguished part of it and leave most of the rest inhospitable to life?

What does it tell us about such a deity that he conceives of a moral system that starts with ‘my creation must love and worship me and be eternally grateful that I’ve decided to do this’ and that for the infringement of this system he devises an eternal system of horrible punishment (the reward for loving and worshipping him is of course to spend eternity loving and worshipping him)?

The future of his creations (which he already knows before he starts) is one of bloody and painful conflict with him and each other in which he all but wipes them out a couple of times then chooses a select race to wipe out a number of other local ones whilst ignoring most of the rest. He gradually withdraws from constant direct meddling and communication and, after a confusing personal appearance where he joins in for a bit, he backs off and leaves us to wonder why, a bit like ants having had their hill poked with a stick.  

I think with a few moments thought (let alone a timeless eternity) we could all think of better universes to create. I certainly hope that I do a better job as a parent.   


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