By FRANS de WAAL on animal cognition (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 12:44 (3141 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I have reproduced the whole of our exchange, to show that this response is a complete non sequitur! Whether God “guided” evolution or gave organisms the intelligence to direct it themselves, evolution could not take place until conditions were right. It is therefore absurd to suggest that the drive to complexity or improvement should have manifested itself earlier if organisms were in charge of their own evolution.
DAVID: A complete misinterpretation of my comment: I simply pointed out that bacteria continue to do their thing, because they can. It also happens it is required to keep the Earth in a livable condition for us advanced creatures, so luckily they keep going. The bacteria don't need to create the complexity of multicellularity, and we don't know why it happened. Yes it did happen when the conditions became inviting, but that doesn't mean it had to happen. Therefore something drove it that could plan and design it. God.-I know I'm ignorant, but trust me, I do know that bacteria are necessary, and that they have always been bacteria, and we don't know why multicellularity happened. I simply objected to your double standards (it's OK for God to wait 3 billion years for conditions to be right, but not for bacteria). I believe I have also made the point that the “something” that drives evolution may be an intelligent, autonomous inventive mechanism - possibly designed by your God - which seeks not only to survive (you have never told me whether you think the will to survive is “natural” or has to be “guided” by your God) but also to improve.-DAVID: As He fine-tuned the universe, I would think all the attributes of "Rare Earth & Privileged Planet" apply as signs of his guidance.
dhw: So God organized every environmental change throughout the history of evolution?
DAVID: In view of fine tuning, most likely watched over it.-A delightfully vague expression. Either he organized the environmental changes without which evolution could not have happened, or he didn't. Or maybe he let the environment go its own sweet-and-sour way and occasionally dabbled? And maybe he did the same with evolution itself: “watched over it” as organisms went ahead using their autonomous inventive mechanism (intelligence), but occasionally did a dabble?