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Kaj_Sotala comments on Book trades with open-minded theists - recommendations? - Less Wrong
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Sorry, but that sounds like motivated stopping to me. Coming up with ways by which blind evolution and guiding divinity might be compatible isn't really hard at all.
For one, a gene mutation can only be selected for once it exists. Whether a mutation comes into existence or not is a random process. God could influence the mutations that come into existence.
Secondly, the course of evolution is determined by the environment. Put life in a cold environment, and it will evolve to have adaptations for the cold. God could manipulate the environment to select for the adaptations He wants. There are a lot of papers arguing that the evolution of intelligent, tool-using life requires a very specific environment, which God could have helped arrange.
Thirdly, in addition to choosing the environment, God could influence what happens in the environment, for instance by causing catastrophes that lead to population bottlenecks, helping select specific traits by influencing who survives.
Fourthly, there's genetic drift, again essentially a random process.
...and these were just ones I could come up with off the top of my head.
What is hard is to make compatible evolution and all-loving divinity. To watch how ones creations torment and devour each other for hundreds of millions of years is not exactly my idea of love.
Ok. That doesn't matter though- my point is it's no good to try and make God vanish in a poof of logic. What seems far more effective is getting people to the point where they can say "I have no need of that hypothesis." Apologists have spent a long time making the logical basis of the church difficult to attack- which can be subverted by pointing out an alternative to the church.
I agree with that, but I would note that this is a highly intellectual route which won't work on people whose reasons are non-intellectual. I was a theist once: less so because of any intellectual issues, but because of the emotional comfort and feeling of safety that it provided. I've also talked to religious people who acknowledge that on an intellectual level, there's no reason to believe, but on an emotional level there is.
I often get the feeling that LW focuses exceedingly on the intellectual reasons, while not always realizing that the emotional reasons can by themselves be enough for someone to believe. (On the other hand, purely emotional belief tends to be compartmentalized and harmless, so focusing solely on the intellectual belief is probably a good thing. But it does risk creating an incorrect model of the psychology of the believers.)
Right. I've said elsewhere that most people choose religions based on who their fellow worshipers will be, and that needs to come up in any conversation about conversion.
I understand what you are saying here, but I think it's phrased a bit inaptly. The only choice that most people make about religion is the choice to continue practicing the religion they were raised with. Limiting the discussion to converts, you are, of course, correct.