Parrot consciousness? (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, February 03, 2016, 13:00 (3215 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Of course, we have gone far, far beyond them with our science, technology, art, philosophy, but we are animals all the same, and the main point of my response was to follow the article in emphasizing the common ground.-DAVID: Of course with an evolutionary process there must be common ground, but our brainy leap is far beyond what is necessary for simple survival. I emphasis the difference and you wish to recognize it but diminish its significance.-Its significance in relation to what? Yes, we are vastly more intelligent than our fellow animals. You want to use this as proof that we are God's purpose. Once you accept evolution, it is perfectly possible to attribute our extra intelligence to the same processes that have given dogs a sense of smell that is up to 10,000,000 times more sensitive than our own. (Some breeds have 300 million scent glands compared to our 5 million). According to you, EVERY such wonder is your God's work, so every wonder is “significant” or he would not have bothered to organize it. I would agree, though, that human intelligence is the most remarkable wonder of them all. If I believed in God, I could even believe that we are special for him because we are aware of him. But the existence of our intelligence does not prove his existence “beyond a reasonable doubt” (your favoured expression), and if he is there, it does not even begin to prove that from the very beginning of the universe, he preprogrammed or personally supervised the production of the weaverbird's nest, the dog's nose and us.