Chimp vs. human brain (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, December 14, 2012, 18:39 (4363 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: But you have agreed that there is nothing logical (by human standards) about a plan to create homo sapiens via an evolutionary bush that involves billions of other species extant and extinct, not to mention other forms of humans that...oops...also got knocked out. (What, I wonder, are your criteria for perfection?!) Your response to this problem was that God has his own logic, and we shouldn't "want God to have a human-ly series of logical thoughts." If one explanation is not logical by the only form of logic you and I can understand, why not look for another explanation that might be more logical? That the original mechanism "allowed for" complexity and the arrival of good old homo sapiens is obvious, since that is what happened, but "allowed for" does not in any way mean that there was a specific pre-planned purpose.-DAVID: Your point is well argued, but you are ignoring the development of our upright posture and our brain over the past 8-10 million years. It didn't have to happen. The great apes are still doing just fine for all those centuries, still unchanged with no advancements (exclusive of our encroachment on their habitat, poaching for bush meat, etc) If we'd leave them alone they can continue doing just fine. Why was our development pushed?? The only future development I see is in brain enhancement.-Thank you, your point is well argued too, except that it's the wrong point. If homo sapiens was the pre-planned goal of evolution, and chimps and humans branched off from a common ancestor, what was the point of the chimp branch of the bush? Of course our brain and posture didn't have to happen. Bacteria have been "doing just fine" for billions of years, so evolution didn't have to happen either. Dinosaurs, dodos, dogs and ducks didn't have to happen. Are we now to say that the anthropocentric purpose of evolution was achieved by creating and getting rid of dinosaurs and dodos, and creating and preserving dogs and ducks so that we could have humans? Yes, we are unique, but so is the platypus, the last surviving member of its family. If only we could speak Platypan, it might even tell us that its presence on Planet Earth and its absolute uniqueness prove that it was the goal of evolution. My point is that the higgledy-piggledy bush is the exact opposite of what we would expect from a designed process with a pre-planned purpose. You have already acknowledged its illogicality. Surrender!-DAVID (to hyjyljyj): dhw and I have ping-ponged these ideas for four years now. And we [are] both as stubborn as mules.-And of course the mule is the absolute pinnacle of evolution.