> Comment: Yes, we feel uneasy (perhaps because of our homocentrism), but
> perhaps there are numerous morally capable and responsible species in
> genomic phase space, of which we are just one. Perhaps the arrival of homo
> sapiens was not inevitable, but the probability of at least one of those
> potential species becoming actualized is practically equal to one.
And George Murphy commented:
> This is the point I was trying to make: _If_ indeed this
>probability close to unity then the basic physical condition for
>Incarnation is satisfied.
So, on this view, God really had no idea of what the resultant creatures
would be like when he created. However he did have a pretty good idea that
sometime, somewhere, there would evlove intelligent, self-conscious, free
moral agents who would in fact go wrong and necessitate the Incarnation.
But again I ask how God could know this, if the trajectory through genomic
phase space is random? How could he (or anyone) say the probabiity of that
phase space producing such creatures--a probability which depends upon
counterfactuals of chance--would approach unity?
To understand your view better, are you (and Glenn Morton, too) saying that
God *did not* providentially intervene in such a way so as to guide the
trajectory through phase space, perhaps by giving a "nudge" here and a
"tweak" there at just the right nodes on the phylogenetic tree, say, to
insure progress towards his previsioned goal? Or are you saying that such
nudges and tweaks would in principle be indetectable, indiscernible from
other random influences on the process? Or is there another interpretation
I'm ignoring?
Blessings,
Garry DeWeese