Consciousness; research says insects have it (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, July 10, 2016, 20:03 (3057 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The weaver bird nest and humans are not closely connected in the scheme of things though you constantly try to equate them. 
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> dhw: And still you refuse to agree that insects may be capable of intelligent design. As for the weaverbird's nest, I have spent several years pointing out that that there is absolutely no conceivable connection between it and humans! That is why I have constantly questioned your insistence that God's purpose was to produce humans, but that he also personally designed the nest (plus billions of other natural wonders). Initially you tried to find connections with your “balance of nature” theory, until it became apparent that the balance of nature simply meant life went on, as you now acknowledge:
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> DAVID: The variety in the microcosms of life provides energy for living things to continue to evolve, no more than that. The weaverbird nest is part of God's liking of complexity and creating patterns of complexity-I keep insisting the only connection between weaver birds and evolution is the balance of nature. I've never gotten rid of it.-> 
> DAVID: You are just slicing and dicing the meaning of God's consciousness. If He works through quantum levels of reality, He is into and affecting everything.
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> dhw: If he exists and created everything, then of course he affects everything. Our context was panpsychism, and I was pointing out the illogicality of your claim that God's consciousness is everywhere and into everything, but it is not in organisms that have no brains.-Of course He can be in animals without brains. His consciousness is not manifest in them in the same way. An amoeba is not conscious but automatically responds, following God's programming.