Big brain evolution: human neurons are different (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 18:48 (2220 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: On and on and on...It appears that your God designed everything, although according to you, all he really wanted to produce was the brain of Homo sapiens. Apparently he couldn’t have done it without bird sleep, dandelion seed, shrimp punches, and insect hibernation. Or maybe, just maybe, all these organisms figured out their own ways to survive? And so we come to the biggie on this thread:

QUOTE: “Large networks of these neurons communicate with each other to generate thoughts and behavior.”

DAVID: our brains are not just bigger and more complex. They have special neurons with special dendrites. If they act as transistors, that would increase 'computing' power increasing the brain's capacity for thought. If we are not owners of simple enlarged ape brains, how did that happen? By design is the only answer, as existing apes prove our consciousness capacity is not needed for survival.

dhw: In passing, please note the above quote, which specifies that the networks generate thoughts and behaviour. This is the case for materialism, which you profess not to believe in.

DAVID: Behavior can be viewed in a way different than your inference. Remember behavior is not automatic but the result of free will thinking.

dhw: The quote brackets thoughts and behaviour, and materialism casts doubt on the very concept of free will. But I made the remark in passing, as we have covered this subject in our discussions on materialism versus dualism.

When research is quoted by Darwinist scientists, of course materialism appears. My point is the specificity of the neurons functions as attesting to human uniqueness

dhw: Bacteria prove that multicellularity, the dog’s nose, the camel's hump, the weaverbird’s nest the monarch butterfly’s migration and the human brain are not necessary for life to survive. You also have your God specially designing bird sleep, dandelion seed, shrimp punching and insects hibernating. So why do you keep using the same old "not needed" and the same "by design" arguments to single out the human brain? They apply to every organ and organism of the multicellular world.

DAVID: And how did life jump from ever present bacteria to complex forms? Not by chance.

dhw: I asked why you keep trotting out the same old “not needed” and “by design” arguments to single out the human brain, when the same arguments apply to every other multicellular organism and natural wonder you can think of. You respond by changing the subject.

Subject not changed if the discussion is viewed in totality. Our brain is demonstrably beyond any need to drive its appearance. It is you who constantly revert to stresses and environmental changes as causing evolution, while I think it is planned. Environment plays a small role, if any to explain whales, bats, etc.