dhw: big brain evolution:comparing chimp and brain organoids (Evolution)

by David Turell , Friday, April 05, 2019, 15:34 (2057 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Logic: it is proposed God is in charge of creation. Therefore what is seen in history is a result of His actions. We cannot tell if God can directly create or must evolve living forms. Evidence tells us it appears He created the universe in one instant and then evolved its form to its present state. Our special Earth was also evolved over time. We cannot know if His choice of methodology to evolve, as above, is due to limits or is pure choice. To answer your unanswerable question simply, under the proposition the demanded answer doesn't matter. Evolution means change to something different. In our case, life evolved from simple forms to the most complex organ every created, the human brain, and the human form which can perform actions not capable of by any other animal. If evolution has directionality, and it does, what is present now must be interpreted as goals of its director, God.

dhw: An excellent compilation of logical arguments, which as usual leaves out the fact that in post after post you insist that your God specially designed every life form, econiche, lifestyle and natural wonder: evolution for you apparently means that he preprogrammed or personally dabbled every single evolutionary development, and yet you continue to insist that his sole purpose in specially designing the whale’s flippers, the cuttlefish’s camouflage and the weaverbird’s nest was to keep life going until he could specially design each hominin and human prior to specially designing his one and only goal, the brain of H. sapiens. Your “logic” demands total disregard of the dislocation between these separate hypotheses.

The history of life shows us a vast diversity – not a straight line to H. sapiens. This leaves open the possibility that your God’s goal was a vast diversity. It also leaves open the possibility that instead of your God supplying the very first cells with a programme for every single undabbled life form etc. throughout the history of life, he supplied them with the means of doing their own design (cellular intelligence) – though always retaining the power to dabble. Your fierce opposition to this theistic hypothesis (theistic, as it allows for God being the designer of cellular intelligence), and hence to a concept which is clearly gaining favour in the scientific community, lies at the heart of our whole discussion on evolution, on cellular intelligence, and on the logic of each proposed interpretation of life's history.

A goal of the human brain does not require a straight line development as you seem to demand, if evolution is used as the method. You again ignore that your proposed 'goal of diversity' has its own secondary purpose of affording food supply so evolution can continue and therefore was part of God's purpose, but not a separate goal. As far as cells are concerned we both recognize they act intelligently, which swell may be due to intelligent instructions from God.