Different in degree or kind: animal minds (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, January 02, 2016, 18:54 (3036 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: No, because nobody has yet found a satisfactory explanation for the major innovations that have driven evolution. That is why I have suggested autonomous intelligence as an alternative hypothesis .... and have pointed out that the natural wonders and adaptations you have reported offer us evidence that organisms are capable of autonomous thought.-I've pointed out that it is most likely automatic reactions, not primitive animals thoughts.
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> dhw: That is why you keep tying yourself in knots trying to reconcile God's special designs for birds and spiders and wasps and jellyfish with the higgledy-piggledy bush and your anthropocentric vision of evolution.
> DAVID: I am not in knots, as the authors of "Nature's IQ" point out. 
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> I am pleased to hear that you have some support for your hypothesis that your God “coded DNA for all of evolution from the beginning of life” and humans were “the goal”. Do the authors also explain why the weaverbird's nest was so important to God?-No, they just say, as I do, God must have helped. The weaver nest is one of their prime examples. And they offer hundreds of examples, and they are not concerned about the importance to God. You want a logical God, but He may not fit your requirements. Is the universe logical, if we assume its enormous expanse is just for life on Earth? If we are the only life, then God exists, is the viewpoint I follow.
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> dhw: When the dinosaurs died out, other organisms flourished. If the human race dies out, other organisms will flourish. All you are saying is that life on Earth goes on. Whatever survives, survives. Until eventually life on Earth will cease, so what is this "balance for everyone"?-You have just agreed with me and then questioned the concept! Life goes on because it is balanced in nature. It is the consumable energy requirement plant or animal you keep ignoring.