autonomy v. automaticity (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 10:53 (2444 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: As for surprise at the human brain and indeed all forms of life, I would call it wonderment, whether God exists or not.

DAVID: Your wonderment should include an amazement at the arrival of the human brain. It needn't be here, but it is, therefore I feel/ know there is reason behind the event.

If you read my words, you will see that they do include wonderment at the human brain. And indeed at all forms of life. And there is no form of life that needs to be here. And so perhaps there is a reason for all forms of life to be here or no longer here. And if there is a God, perhaps his reason for all forms of life coming and going in a great higgledy-piggledy bush is that he wanted all forms of life to come and go in a great higgledy-piggledy bush. That does not preclude a special place for humans, but it does preclude individual design for every natural wonder solely in order to produce our brain. If there is no God, then all forms of life simply have their own particular reasons for being here – in most cases, survival and/or improvement, but with us humans a much wider variety, though always including survival and/or improvement.