Intelligence & Evolution (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 16, 2013, 19:06 (4054 days ago) @ dhw


> DAVID: I am struggling to change your concept slightly: The cells act intelligently because they automatically follow an information program from an intelligent source. That is theistic evolution. That is our only difference in description. 1) and 2) are two parts of the same concept.
> 
> dhw; No, they are not. First of all, as I keep repeating, the second hypothesis is meant only to explain the course of evolution, and it does not touch on the origin of the intelligence. Secondly, your hypothesis has God working everything out in advance, and although you claim not to be trying to read his mind, you have consistently said that his purpose was to produce human beings. Yours is an anthropocentrically teleological concept of evolution. The alternative that I am proposing is an ad hoc evolution, the theistic version of which would be that God created a mechanism that could adapt and invent in accordance with changing environmental conditions, i.e. God had no particular goal in mind, but just wanted to see what his mechanism would come up with (much more entertaining that way). Hence what I call the higgledy-piggledy course of evolution, with all its comings and goings. For this to happen, the cells could not be preprogrammed ... they would have to take their own decisions.-Or they are programmed for decision making that guides evolution to humans and God did have a goal. If we look at what we know, we see that the universe is designed to allow for life. That is a goal oriented observation. Then we see that we appear, and there is no reason why that should happen. The Great apes are happy and unchanged. There must be a teleological reason to invent us. We should have stayed as happy apes, but we didn't. What forced the development? No force is apparent, if we accept the Darwin idea that evolution is a response to challenges. If that statement is not true, we are back to God in control. Or your weasel way of cell invention which is really a far out concoction if you look at actual biochemistry.