darth_ender said:
There is a large gap between the chimp and the human, much like the large gap between the human and God. But the chimp is incapable of reason. The chimp is not fully self-aware. The chimp is not technically sentient, as intelligent as it may be. It's behaviors are motivated entirely by what it instinctively aims for in self preservation. No matter how much more effort we put into teaching chimps, their brains have pretty much hit a ceiling as far as they are able to mentally grow, and without some substantial evolutionary leap, they will never learn true language (in the sense that they can form an infinite number of combinations to express ideas). They will never learn to write their names. They will never learn to even construct anything like a model airplane.
Interestingly enough, that reasoning is the basis for my point. I believe that all those wonderful things you ascribe to us humans would be pretty unimpressive to whatever species is just one step up from us. They would be saying things like... humans aren't xxx, humans aren't yyy, they are incapable of zzz, etc. etc. Our self-awareness, reasoning skills, language skills, etc. would probably seem about as impressive to the next species up, as we are impressed with the chimp's ability to express anger by throwing it's poo-poo.
The gap between human and God is far larger, but at the same time we were created in his image, capable of knowing right from wrong. As our creator, he obviously has some vested interest in us and our wellbeing. And having given us some capacity to understand, as well as the capacity to act in faith, he grants us the opportunity to exercise both virtues.
Those are assumptions, not conclusions. They presuppose that we were created by him in his image. I think it is far more likely that we evolved so as to adapt to our environment.
From a more scientific standpoint, if this superior being who exercises authority over us were merely toying, it seems he'd have destroyed us long ago, rather than continue to allow us to better ourselves, extend our longevity, and grow to doubt his existence more and more.
Possibly, although he/she may have no reason to destroy us. Or, it is possible that the timeframe is simply much smaller than it seems to us. A few million years is pretty small compared to the lifespan of this cycle of our universe.
About 2 1/2 years ago, the great scientist Stephen Hawking came out of the closet, so to speak, as an atheist. For years he had advanced our understanding of physics while still giving God the credit. What was his amazing reasoning? Was it that evidence pointed against the existence of God? Was it that there simply was not enough evidence to substantiate him? No. It was because God is redundant, because these laws just exist, and because of these laws, the universe will form itself. Nevermind the confusion of existence, where do matter, energy, and pre-existing laws come from.
I can't say that I agree with Hawking any more than I agree with you. Again, I think it is more likely that an even slightly more sophisticated being would think that these are obviously irrelevant questions, and that we only ask them because we are unaware of some very important things that we are incapable of noticing or understanding.