Brain complexity: early ape pathways for hearing (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, April 23, 2020, 18:57 (1465 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Many adaptations for sapiens speech: high arched palate, dropped larynx, epiglottis airway protection, improved lip and tongue control for a bigger variety of phonemes, recently found cerebellar circuits. Of course a direct line, while it is the cause we debate.

dhw: Yes indeed. So do you think your God intervened in order to dabble these adaptations? If not, we have a natural progression. If he intervened, and if his sole purpose was to directly design H. sapiens, why do you think he did a mini-dabble 20 million years ago instead of getting on with the only speech mechanism he actually wanted?

DAVID: You keep forgetting that I view God as evolving from bacteria to humans in a slow progression as noted by the recognized time line of evolution. Part of the original plan. No corrective dabble.

dhw: I am not questioning the theory that there was a slow progression from bacteria to all life forms including humans. I am surprised to hear you say there was no dabble. The only theistic alternative you have offered us is a 3.8 billion-year-old programme for all species, innovations, lifestyles, natural wonders etc. Is that what you mean by “the original plan”. A short time ago, you decided that most advances were dabbles. I thought that included the palate, larynx, epiglottis etc. And if it’s neither programme nor dabble, what is the alternative?

A long time ago I proposed God either pre-planned evolution or did a course correction dabble now and then, based on my decision to conclude God ran the process of evolution starting with bacteria (Archaea). As a human making such a guess about God's actions, perhaps I am missing a third approach. Dabbling comes from a doubt that God is absolutely prescient in seeing the future without error, as religions claim. And that admits I am conceding some weakness in God, which is a form of humanizing Him. It is certainly possible that an all-powerful, all- knowing God never has to dabble. It is my distrust of religious descriptions of God that had me thinking in that manner. dhw gets worried when I change my mind, but all of us are allowed a re-think! dhw constantly/rigidly holds me to previous thoughts, which is unfair as new thinking occurs, based in part on his reasonable/unreasonable criticisms, and my own constant self-analysis. Even if he is on his picket fence, his thoughts are not higher than mine.