Different in degree or kind (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 16, 2013, 21:55 (4025 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: I never could. It has always been a major factor in my agnosticism. Perhaps one day you should read the "brief guide", which was my response to Dawkins' The God Delusion. But I don't wish to downplay the role you have played in my education, for which I am profoundly grateful. I am ten times better informed about the scientific background to these arguments, you have clarified many points for me, and by pointing me in the direction of Margulis (much though you may regret it), you have opened up a fascinating new approach to my understanding of how evolution might work.-I don't regret introducing Margulis. Her contributions are monumental in regard to mitochondria. The rest is simply not the way I intrepret things. -
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> dhw: I agree completely that intelligence evolves with experience and with the continued influx of information. ...... It's not the origin of information (i.e. everything in the world around us) that is at issue here, but the origin of the intelligence which uses the information. -You are still avoiding the chicken/egg issue. Information has to be present for intelligence to learn and use. where did the informaton in DNA come from?- 
> DAVID: I savour the picture of cogitating ants.
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> dhw: Of course you do, because you enjoy ridiculing the idea of ants having intelligence by anthropomorphizing them and then accusing me of anthropomorphizing them.-Ridicule is not anthropomorphosis.-
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> dhw: How do you experiment and find solutions to countless problems if you are merely an automaton obeying instructions? That would mean that your God preprogrammed the first cells to pass on not only plans for the complex habitats, organization of food supply, education of the young, military strategies etc., but also the errors our ants made along the way! Doesn't this strike you as a little bit far-fetched? -Not the errors. Error-prone ants died. Those who survived used the right responses. Just as tautological as survival of the fittest.-> 
> dhw: Why, when the activities are the same as human activities? What terms would you suggest we use for the above list?-These are parallel events. Same terms is fine.