Different in degree or kind (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, November 11, 2013, 21:45 (3809 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Read Torley. There is a colon after "discontinuities", which he explains as being the two kinds of consciousness. I have pointed out that this does not mean discontinuity. You are substituting your own argument for his. Of course I accept our self-awareness as a "major gap", just as I would accept that there is a major gap between a student who gets 90% in an exam and a student who gets 10% in the same exam. I am answering Torley, not Adler.-
My problem is I've read Adler and understand the import of his argument, as we both do. Difference in kind means God exists. 
> 
> I've never disputed that man is an animal like no other. An elephant is also an animal like no other. As I keep pointing out, the question of degree versus kind seems totally pointless to me, but your anthropocentric interpretation of evolution demands special treatment by God, and that is why it's important to you. If God guided evolution to the specialness of man, he also guided it to the specialness of elephants (or dogs ... see my post under "Intelligence"). If you believe evolution happened, but somehow humans are to be set apart from their animal ancestors, you are arguing for separate creation, as Torley does with his God suddenly endowing post Heidelberg homo with a soul.-Yes, I'm on Torley's side. The ancient Hebrews (our ancestors) gave a different soul, but a soul, to animals.-> DAVID: I should have warned you Dr Torley is a very committed Christian. 
> 
> dhw: I'd like to hear your own views on his theory that the need for monogamy led God to provide post-Heidelberg humans with a soul.-I won't fall for that bait. I don't buy it either. As above, he is a very commited Christian. I don't know when ensoulment happened, but I equate it with the arrival of the very advanced human consciousness, whenever that happened. We don't even know if it was a gradual or a sudden event. If we could identify which type of event it would push the argument one way or the other toward degree or kind.