autonomy v. automaticity (Evolution)

by David Turell , Saturday, March 17, 2018, 14:09 (2441 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: And I'll stick to my point of view. The nest is there as evidence of God's work. It could not have popped up by chance. Look at the boy-scout knots the bird had to figure out to hang the bag-like nest from a ranch. It had to be designed all at once, not bit by bit, or the weight of the eggs would have caused them to be splattered on the ground. Your theory about the bird demands bit by bit.

dhw: Of course it didn’t pop up by chance. Every bird builds its nest for a purpose! And every bird’s nest has to support the weight of the eggs. Neither you nor I have the slightest idea why the weaverbird made its nest so complex, but your answer avoids the whole question of why your God should specially pick on the weaverbird and specially teach it to tie specially complicated knots. As with all of nature’s wonders, you cannot imagine organisms working out their own special ways of doing things – they are all specially designed by God, and so the nest of the weaverbird had to have special knots in order to provide energy for life to go on until your God could produce the one thing he wanted to produce, which was the brain of Homo sapiens. It has never made sense, even to you.

Of course it makes perfect sense to me. The bag design is perfect protection for the eggs. Open cup nests are attacked all the time. As for our brain, its uniqueness is obvious evidence that it was the goal of evolution, as conducted by God.