Human evolution; possibly we first appeared earlier (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, February 02, 2018, 13:27 (2486 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: My point is the erectus brain was incapable of any further advances than the artifacts produced and living in caves, hunting and picking fruit and nuts. dhw implies just the same: without implementation from a larger brain, nothing further could happen.

No disagreement here. No advance can be made without implementation of new concepts. And since you are a dualist who believes that concepts come from the soul, not the brain, it makes perfect sense that eventually the erectus soul came up with new concepts that required additional brain capacity (expansion) for their implementation. It makes no sense for a dualist to claim that expansion/complexification of the brain had to take place BEFORE the thinking soul could come up with its new concept. See “big brain evolution” for the latest blatant contradiction in your hypothesis.

dhw:It is you who have created a mystery because of your insistence that your God is in control and his sole purpose was to produce the brain of sapiens. So why all these other pre-sapiens brains and the millions and millions of years before he came up with the one he wanted?

DAVID: Because it is obvious from history God preferred to evolve progress in evolution.

You asked why it took sapiens 270,000 years to come up with new concepts, and I gave you a clear explanation. In return I asked why it took your God millions of years to produce the only brain he wanted to produce. He “preferred” to do it that way is on a par with “God has his reasons”, or “God’s reasoning is different from ours”. If you can’t give me a reason, it’s because the “gap” doesn’t make sense to you. Well maybe God DID have a reason that we can understand, as follows:

dhw: Once you take off your anthroblinkers and accept the (theistic) alternative that your God set up the initial mechanism whereby organisms autonomously made their own evolutionary way, you have a clear explanation for the ever changing bush and all the “gaps”.

DAVID: The complexity of the biochemistry of living organisms is well beyond that approach. Intense design is required to create the emergence of life from lifeless organic molecules, from which, when their function is coordinated properly, actual life emerges. It is this concept that separates your thinking from mine, which comes from my training in biochemistry.

I have NEVER disputed the argument that “actual life” and the mechanisms of evolution are too complex to have originated by chance. It is a major reason why I cannot embrace atheism. Your comment is your usual escape route when I challenge your hypotheses about the purpose and method of the evolutionary process. Look at what I wrote: “….accept the (theistic) alternative that your God set up the initial mechanism” etc. Your training in biochemistry will not have given you one iota of support for your firm belief that your God designed every life form, lifestyle and natural wonder for the sole purpose of producing the sapiens brain.