Explaining natural wonders (Animals)

by dhw, Saturday, September 17, 2016, 12:50 (2988 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Just as you don't believe in God, I don't believe simple organisms without brains had minds.-I have never said that God does not exist. You have categorically stated that simple organisms do not have minds. The difference between us is that I leave doors open, whereas you close them.-dhw: …The whole point of my hypothesis, and of BBella's response to your post, is not the origin of consciousness but the existence of consciousness, i.e. a crucial part of the unknown mechanism is the conscious intelligence of organisms which enables them to work out their own innovations, without God having to set up an undiscovered 3.7-billion-year-old computer programme for everything, or to take “time out of his busy schedule”.-DAVID: My concept totally differs: a new species has new parts or new mechanisms which are coordinated. This must be planned in advance. If punctuated equilibrium is the rule, there is no other way. I firmly believe your concept of conscious intelligence to create new species resides in God. As an example the current compliment of 200 dog types don't look like wolves, but they really still are, and human intelligence did that. No one knows how new species happen naturally.-Of course new species have new parts or mechanisms that are coordinated. No difference between our concepts. “Planned in advance” requires explanation. In advance of what? We can see over and over again from adaptation that organisms change themselves in response to new conditions, not “in advance”. I am proposing that they may follow the same procedure with innovations, working things out once the environment has changed. What do you mean by “resides in God”? Once more, my concept does not exclude God. It excludes the argument that God preprogrammed or dabbled every innovation and natural wonder. THAT is your totally different concept. I don't see how the example of human intelligence creating new types of dog in any way precludes the possibility that organisms can also change themselves. Of course no one knows how new species happen naturally - that is why we have all these theories.