Intelligence & Evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 18:54 (3844 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Only humans (so far as we know) have abstract thought and self-awareness, but you deny that you have ever claimed that only humans are conscious. You have agreed that your non-abstract-thinking, non-self-aware dog has a lesser degree of consciousness/intelligence than humans, so you accept the above criteria for animals and even plants, and you can scarcely deny that cells fulfil the same criteria.-You continue to confuse the levels. Conscious state involves my dog being aware of his environment, living at my house. I am also consciouus at that level. But I also have consciousness of the type you describe at the human level. Only humans have it. That is why I think we should be classified as a group separate from Primates.-> dhw: just as ants come up with their effective strategies (see my post under "Cell Memories"), cells work out their strategy through their billions of combined intelligences. That's called emergence. As with consciousness, we don't know how it works. You accept the latter, so why not accept the possibility of the former? -Because cells work under controls in their genome. They cannot plan or design, but that is exactly what you want them to do by some kind of strange emergence.-
> dhw:If God created the mechanism that enabled all forms of life to evolve from one or a few, there is no conflict with theism. The conflict is only with the biblical version of creation.-Agreed.-
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> dhw: I do ot accept any of the hypotheses. I am an agnostic. None of these hypotheses are based on a knowledge of biochemistry. If you think yours is, how do you explain your own claim that 90% of biochemists are atheists?-Surveys taken on the higher levels of scientists in research always find 90% are atheists.