Consciousness; research says insects have it (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, July 11, 2016, 13:06 (3056 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: The weaver bird nest and humans are not closely connected in the scheme of things though you constantly try to equate them. -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! […]
DAVID: I keep insisting the only connection between weaver birds and evolution is the balance of nature. I've never gotten rid of it.-(Meanwhile, you still refuse to acknowledge the possibility that insects are capable of intelligent design.) Your weaverbird problem initially was trying to find a connection between it and your insistence that your God's purpose was to produce humans. The balance of nature, as we eventually agreed, means nothing but there being enough food for life to continue. Why your God should specially design the nest of one bird in order to keep life going so that humans could be produced remains a mystery, though last time you suggested that God likes creating pretty patterns. As I pointed out, this is every bit as anthropomorphic as my theory that he likes watching his inventive mechanism produce pretty patterns (not to mention the less pretty patterns).
 
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.-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.-DAVID: 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.-That is why I specifically pointed out that instructions are not consciousness. We talk of man-made machines in terms of “artificial intelligence”. An amoeba is not a man-made machine, and it acts as if it is intelligent. I would call that "natural intelligence". However, if you truly believe that your God inserted programmes into the first amoeba and the first bacteria to provide solutions to every problem that life would throw at them over the next umpteen billion years - or alternatively he pops in to give them further instructions as and when new problems arise - so be it.