Evolution v Creationism: guided evolution? dhw? (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, April 19, 2015, 15:37 (3504 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: In most situations there is a limited choice of responses, if that is what you mean by a “given list”. You think humans make a free choice (autonomous), but you can hardly talk of bacteria ”choosing” if the choice is automatic! You ask later why I mention free will. It is because many people use the same arguments to oppose human autonomy as you use to oppose bacterial autonomy (it's all chemical responses governed by conditions we cannot control). If “one cannot tell the difference”, perhaps one should keep an open mind in both cases. But somehow you know we are autonomous and bacteria are not.-I make up new thoughts and proposals all the time. Note the article on Sam Harris' book. Your referral to the short-sided view of how our brain works has no relevance to me. I don't accept it, and it is a very poor comparison to bacterial thought process, which doesn't exist.-> 
> I have never asked you to choose between preprogramming and dabbling. ..... I find it surprising that you regard these hypotheses as reasonable but totally reject the hypothesis that your God might have endowed organisms with the ability to do their own inventing.-You constantly skip over my conclusion that humans were the end point of evolution. If organisms did their own fully free inventing, humans might never appear. We are back at chance. The bush of life is strange enough as it is, but we've talked about balance of nature.-> 
> dhw; Has there ever been a single moment in our correspondence when I have not acknowledged complexity? It is a prime reason why I am not an atheist, and if I were discussing the subject with an atheist, I would use the same arguments as you. How do I think that complexity developed? By single cells combining and cooperating intelligently with other cells.-And how did single cells develop the intelligence to produce complex 'multicells' like humans? Do you really understand the uber-complexity that is still under discovery? The issue re' complexity is that research shows a continuous steep climbing graph of overwhelming complexity with each new study. How much complexity do you need before recognizing that planning intelligence is needed to be behind it? -> 
> Xxxxxxxx
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> dhw: Thank you for the Feynman quote, which is a gem: "I have approximate answers and possible beliefs in different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything." 
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> And a special thank you for the essay by Stephen L. Talbott, which I will have to comment on another time. Very meaty!-Try Denton also!