10. On God and evolution

Inspired by attending an interview with Prof. Richard Dawkins at Hay Festival, on 1st June 2018

Listening to Prof. Richard Dawkins today, talking about creationism, and religion in general, a thought strikes me. Many religions put God at the beginning of history, as the Creator. Chronologically, therefore, the first step of evolution, the very first entity in the Universe, who, for unknown reasons, chose to set off an evolutionary process from scratch, with single cell organisms. Of course, God is not seen in evolutionary terms. 

I wondered today, however, whether the idea of God is not better placed, if anywhere, at the very end of evolution. The evolutionary step that supersedes humanity. Maybe, a combination of the whole of humanity, fully communicated, in communion with Superhuman Artificial Intelligence, wielding nanotechnology and genetic modification to control nature. This construct would be as close to the all-knowing, all-seeing, omnipotent being that religions call God. The consequence of evolution, not its first step

Comments

Unknown said…
And...Who is supossed to conviene that idea?
SantiDominguezV said…
I am not sure i understand the question, can you rephrase? If you mean convince, this is an interpretation error. This is a nice idea, it is rounded and logical in its linearity and causality, and therefore intellectually attractive, but it is not designed to convince anyone, i don''t in fact think it will.

And convince of what? What would i want to convince anyone of anything? Should a reader be inclined to think and consider rather than being convinced or otherwise, then such reader could think about the concept of God, how it appeared in humanity's conscience, think about what the future of humanity is and what it means, think about how AI and nanotechnology will give us nearly unlimited power and how we are going to manage this, to control it, to ensure that we use it for everyone's benefit, not just a few. All those are interesting questions. If you want to be convinced about the existence of God, or of the lack of God, you don't need to waste energy thinking about it, your decision is already made, but surely, you can still think about other things which may be intellectually attractive and have practical applications..

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