Different in degree or kind: big brain evolution (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 22, 2016, 15:59 (2681 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: The plasticity I envision is molecular processes, not fixed structure and scaffolding, which stays the same.

dhw:Then perhaps structure was the wrong word. I don’t know how a cell can alter its own molecular processes without having molecules whose processes can be altered (which is what I understand by “plasticity”).

That is correct.

DAVID: Whales came into existence under God's guidance. That is all I really believe. The rest is theory. I have repeated over and over God used an evolutionary process so pre-whales and pre-humans had to occur first.

dhw: But you cannot explain WHY your God specially designed pre-whales and pre-homos in order to produce sapiens. That is the part of your theory I am questioning. Previously you have admitted that you are puzzled by it. So why not consider the possibility that there is a less puzzling explanation: namely, that he did not specially design them, but that evolution “freewheeled” (your very own expression), apart from when he might occasionally have dabbled? Then the puzzle disappears.

You don't like my answer of balance of nature in which the major thrust is the need for energy/food for the evolutionary organisms to cover 3.6 billion years of timer for life to survive. But that is perfectly logical whether humans arrive or not, evolution goes on.