Random Selection vs Intelligent Design

A joke came to mind before watching the talk, he made the joke during the talk, don’t care, I’m going to make it anyway:

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He talks about people being involved in intelligent design in much the same way that many people claim god used intelligent design to create the earth. For me this sets up an interesting scenario. Did we come to the conclusion that god used intelligent design to create the world because we started to recognize our own hand in shaping the world? Did we start to believe that god used intelligent design so we started to try our own hand at it? The possibilities are endless and kind of bleed together.

As I was watching it, I was asking myself if God could be allowing mankind to “program religion”.

Instead of manipulating DNA & cell structure, as human beings, God is letting us (mankind) program religious beliefs.

I think we do exactly that but I think the issue is whether we are aware that we are doing it. The priesthood ban, lifting it, and later disavowing the ban programs religious belief. With the ban in place we came up with religious justifications for the ban, when the ban was lifted we came up with reasons why it was lifted, when it was disavowed we tucked it away on an obscure webpage and decided we’d deal with it later ( :angel: :angel: ), but seriously the disavowal brought its own thoughts and beliefs to wrangle with. The priesthood ban is just one tiny subject in one religion, imagine how this applies across a whole religion or across all religions.

So for me: yes, whether we recognize it or not mankind has been practicing intelligent religious design for millennia.

In the talk the speaker mentioned setting aside 25% of the planet to let things happen naturally, an area that shouldn’t be tampered with while we go about our intelligent designing. What might that untouched 25% be in the context of someone that has undergone a faith crisis who might find themselves disillusioned with religion? Is there a portion of the religious experience that can be walled off to develop naturally while experimenting with intelligent design? Can change truly occur in isolation? Even if 25% is walled off there are still interactions that occur on the borders, changes in one area will affect the other area.

It’s just something for me to think about, not something I expect to ever arrive at an answer to.

I live Nibblers pic. Makes me laugh. The products of evolution in nature are also often bizarre. Take the platypus or sea horse or the ocean animal discovered recently where the male lives inside the gut of the female.

All human created organizations evolve if they want to survive. I also think that human have a much faster change rate today than in the past. The LDS church will evolve, whether or not you call revelation, and I’m worried the church in 100 years may look like a panda bear. Pretty, and compelling, and even wanted, but ultimately irrelevant. I hope to be wrong.