Different in degree or kind; language (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 23, 2014, 21:01 (3409 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

In the context of the relationship between human beings and our fellow animals, I asked David why it was so important for him to make the distinction between degree and kind.-TONY: Because one of the root issues in evolution is precisely about the difference between degrees and kind. Adaptation is difference of degree, speciation is difference of kind. -This is indeed a crucial and still unresolved problem in evolution, but the background to my question is not actually one of classification. It concerns David's interpretation of the purpose and the process of evolution. David has answered under “Yellowstone & Catastrophe”AVID: A long time ago it seemed logical to me that humans were God's end point. I have seen no evidence or argument since then to change my mind. WE are different in kind, against all odds.-All life is against all odds. But your particular hypothesis has led you to the belief that God preprogrammed the first cells with all the innovations and complex lifestyles leading from bacteria to humans, with a question mark over the randomness of environmental conditions, and that the extinction of 99% of all species was essential for the “balance of life” that would lead to humans. You have recently also excluded divine dabbling from your evolutionary scenario. My question, though, was WHY the distinction is so important to you. Even if humans were different in degree and not kind, you could still say we were the “end point”, since we are so much more conscious/intelligent/ technically advanced than other species. -So what exactly is the reason for your insistence on the distinction? What is it meant to prove?