Big brain evolution: changes in sapiens skull shape (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, February 20, 2018, 17:49 (2466 days ago) @ dhw

There can be no question that in life the dualist's s/s/c must interface with the brain, and if there is an afterlife, then the s/s/c will live on without the material mechanisms that have provided it with material information and with material implementation. The afterlife "experience" (NDEs) is regarded by dualists as evidence that in earthly life the s/s/c does the thinking and the brain does the implementing, as you keep agreeing. So why do you also keep insisting that the s/s/c cannot think without the brain? (You may be right – but that is MATERIALISM, which you reject.

You are missing the two modes of the s/s/c while you describe it! In life the s/s/c and brain are interfaced in producing thought. When the brain is non-functional the s/s/c works independently on its own. Clear?

DAVID: Since quantum mechanics is the base state of the universe it represents God's universal consciousness. S/s/c quantum state discussed above. Fact: experiments such as delayed choice indicate consciousness is intimately related to quamtum states.

dhw: In dualism it is the s/s/c that does the thinking and the brain that provides information and gives material expression to thought, regardless of quantum mechanics. Fact: you have not told me whether you think this quantum mechanism is part of the brain or part of the soul, whether it survives the death of the brain, and whether your God’s consciousness is a quantum state.

I think the s/s/c is a quantum state as is God's consciousness, since the basis of the universe is quantum mechanics. Our consciousness is part of God's.

xxx

DAVID: First, I agree that common descent theory appears to be true, but not by any Darwin mechanism. I insist that God logically arranged for speciation, and that minor modifications way have occurred without His direct intervention, but through built-in guided mechanisms.

dhw: I also accept the common descent theory and am sceptical about Darwin’s mechanisms. Your insistence that God logically arranged for speciation – presumably as opposed to giving organisms the means to speciate without his dabbling (direct intervention) or a 3.8-billion-year old computer programme (built-in guided mechanisms) – is on a par with an atheist’s insistence that there is no God. Of course both of you have every right to insist that your opinions are correct, but it is no way to conduct a rational debate.

Ah, 'rational' is only if I agree with you!? I've gone so far as agree with you God might have provided a speciation mechanism in organisms, but we have found no evidence of it so far.