Parrot consciousness? (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, February 04, 2016, 08:28 (3214 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: 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.
-DAVID: Our very special intellectual capacity is only one of many clues I have listed in my two books. You know that.-I stuck to intelligence because that was the starting-point here. But like yourself I have frequently alluded to “clues” such as NDEs and other psychic experiences, as well as the other unsolved mysteries of consciousness in all its manifestations - emotional, aesthetic, spiritual etc. There is no disagreement between us on any of these matters, and they are all factors that keep me from being an atheist, but they are mysteries I can't solve for myself just by creating another even greater mystery.