Different in degree or kind: our hands (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, March 12, 2016, 13:29 (2966 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I repeat, under your scheme of things how did the birds invent the nest? It seems hunt and peck is all you can offer, or what is your otherwise nebulous theory?
BBella: If God created humans with just a touch (tiny amount) of consciousness which gave us a bit of intellectual ingenuity of his (albeit making sure we aren't anywhere as gifted as he), why couldnt he also impart even less, a minuscule bit, of this ingredient to all of his living creation, therefore making every living thing innovative in their own way?
DAVID: Certainly crows show this and I'm sure many others do too. But with the weaver birds, they live in a very complex structure, which I seen in Africa. Look up a picture.-My thanks to BBella for hitting the proverbial nail on the head. Termites, wasps, bees, beavers, spiders, rabbits, badgers etc. - they all create complex structures, and even the simplest bird's nest requires intelligent use of materials. As with every innovation you can think of, each structure must have had an originator/originators, and each structure may have been improved on by subsequent generations. So where are you going to draw the line? God gave some organisms innovative intelligence but others had to be preprogrammed or personally tutored? And according to you, all of them, extant and extinct, only serve/served the purpose of balancing nature in order to produce and feed us humans. Ah, where would we have been without the weaverbird's nest?-DAVID: But you really haven't answered me and explained how weaver birds invent their nest on their own, considering its complexity. You use the birds as a key point, but we know crows seem brighter according to Corvid research. And you follow below with your usual lists of things you do not understand the purpose of, on the way to the creation of humans, which is the most significant fact to try to explain.-Some species may be “brighter” than others, and within species some individuals may be brighter than others, but that doesn't mean the bright ones have to be preprogrammed or tutored by your God. The very concept of the original intelligent cell could and maybe did lead to all the degrees and all the manifestations of intelligence we see in the history of evolution, including the weaverbird's nest and ourselves. No, I do not understand why millions of solar systems extant and extinct, millions of organisms extant and extinct, millions of natural wonders extant and extant, were/are in existence purely for the creation and/or sustenance of humans. But I do understand why the drive for survival and/or improvement might provide a purpose for organisms to develop their own particular lifestyles and “wonders”. And if your God exists, I have no problem assuming he could have given them all the degree of autonomous consciousness that would, as BBella puts it so succinctly, “make every living thing innovative in their own way”.