I would be glad to discuss why I think I'm justified in giving preference to intelligence as part of a divine plan, or why I think consciousness is a little higher on the priority list than non-conscious existence, etc. The question I have: is this your main beef with my argument?

I disagree with Alex in the issue of the Theory of Everything. I would be quite suprised if there was no equation or principle linking all this together. Also, I think Alex hasn't provided an adequate argument against your cosmic order, which I strongly suspect exists. (ie your "the first link cannot bring itself into being" argument.) I think there is a lot of evidence and rationale which supports the foundations for your belief system, however I do not link this foundation with theism in any way. As I said, I agree with you up until this point, but then you make a wild variety of unsubstantiated claims, and I haven't seen you provide any defense for them (I haven't seen it, maybe I've missed it.) I.e. God's plan for the universe, the Unifying Principle as a conscious being and not just another dead natural process, etc. What's so important about sentience in the Cosmos? There's a damn small amount of it here. I think it's pretty presumtuous to project our own personal qualities on the universe around us. It seems far, far, to convenient.