Different in degree or kind: Sapiens begin brain use (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, October 25, 2016, 15:45 (2739 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: According to you, your self is not your brain but your conscious soul, since that apparently will survive when your body dies. You now have your conscious soul controlling your brain and its functions, but one of your brain’s functions is to manage your conscious soul. Unless managing differs from controlling, this does not make sense to me.

I control my brain, though which I use and control my consciousness/soul. My brain does not manage my c/s, I do through the instrument of my brain. I believe in free will which I view the same as 'control' or management. I am the pilot of my ship and all its parts.

dhw: However, if we drop “manage”, I think I can see a way forward. If your dualism is true, your brain and senses provide “you” (your consciousness/soul/self) with information, which “you” process and then “you” instruct the brain to take any necessary actions. The information itself will have ongoing influence on “you”/ your consciousness etc., and in that sense we can say the brain provides experiences that may shape “you”. But it is not the brain “managing” consciousness.

We are fussing over definitions, which is important. As I process info and experiences I form my self/soul. This is management. I do this through the instrument of my brain, through which I receive and control my use of consciousness.

dhw: This whole discussion began with your claim that your God created the larger brain, and then consciousness/the soul/the self learned how to use it – as opposed to the brain expanding in response to the demands of consciousness. I hope eventually to delve deeper into this with an approach that will reconcile dualism and materialism, but I need time!

I view it as size first, and with brain plasticity, new learned use second. Consciousness is an instrument which has to be learned to be used to full extent. Developed language greatly expands the use of conscious thought and the continuous buzz in one's head.

DAVID: Evolution only advances with the passage of less adequate and less complex species. Death makes room for the living. Nothing 'wrong' about evolution. It produced us.

What do you mean by “passage”? As we both keep repeating, evolution advances perfectly well without the death of the least complex species (single-celled). “Less adequate” ones dying out merely confirms the Darwinian process of natural selection. It doesn’t explain why your God preprogrammes “inadequate” solutions in the first place.

And I keep repeating David Raup: extinction are 'bad luck' from extreme environmental changes, not inadequate organisms. Adequate organisms live in adequate comfortable environments. The dinos weren't prepared for Chicxulub. Should God have prepared them? Your comment makes no sense.