Convoluted human evolution: a branch is missing (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, August 13, 2017, 18:25 (2659 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Yes it fits evolution as we see the history. Your views simply leaves out the possibility of a purpose driving evolution. The crowning achievement of the process is the human brain, the most complex functional biological organ in the universe. Nothing else organic or inorganic is equal to it. Just add purpose to your purposeless thinking.

dhw: It does not leave out the possibility of a purpose – it merely challenges your own particular concept of a purpose, which does NOT fit the history of evolution (see above). I have offered you a purpose that fits in perfectly with the history, and even incorporates the possibility of your God setting the process in motion: namely, evolution is driven by the twin purposes of survival and improvement. Humans embody both “drives”, and are themselves motivated by them.

The whale series we have been discussing does not fit 'survival and improvement'. Why choose survival by going into a hostile environment for mammals with complications like birth under water? It is not even clear that survival and competition are major factors in evolution. The drive to complexity, I often discuss, seems much more to the point, again by looking at the whales.

DAVID: All of science provides a background to see the purpose in evolution. Designs found in nature, elucidated by science, provide the background to understand a planning mind is required.

dhw: I cannot see “all of science” confirming your belief that the purpose of every innovation, lifestyle and natural wonder was to produce the human brain. I agree, however, that the designs found in nature require intelligence. That does not mean the intelligence can only be that of a single, sourceless, unknown and unknowable mind creating robots incapable of designing anything for themselves (apart from humans, who for some reason have been granted autonomy, but we mustn’t ask why in case we anthropomorphize God).

I did not say science confirms my belief. Evidence from science forms the background of my evidence for my beliefs. Multiple intelligences multiply the fantasy you follow. One intelligence is enough. And the human brain is a masterful final result that proves the point to me.