Brain Expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, May 14, 2020, 22:52 (1652 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Once again I asked the following question:
dhw: Now tell us whether you believe your God designed the mechanism which enables the brain to complexify without his direction. If he did, why should the same mechanism not have enabled the brain to expand?

DAVID: Total confusion of facts: complexification results in overall shrinkage! And how about the bony problems?

dhw: Total non sequitur plus continued attempt at digression. Once more: if as you believe, your God invented a mechanism which enabled the brain to complexify itself autonomously in response to new requirements (with shrinkage simply the result of its efficiency), why should his invention not also have enabled the earlier brain to expand autonomously for the same reason? If he was happy to leave the modern brain to do its own thing (complexify), why would he not have been happy to let the ancient brain do its own thing (expand) as well?

It is possible to ascribe any actions to God as you wish. My position remains God runs evolution, and your invented theory is not based on any factual material. I doubt if this was an issue of God's happiness. Using this brain as a model of past brains, it IS logical to assume they also complexified a little. Nothing more can be logically assumed from present evidence. But imagination can run wild.

dhw: You keep quoting articles that make no attempt to solve the mystery of expansion, as if somehow they support your theory and disprove mine!

DAVID: My quotes simply show most folks thinking about brain size and artifacts simply assume the bigger brains did it. We both also agree. Your theory is your theory no one else's. And you have never answered the 'bony problem' which involved separate organs than brain.

dhw: Yes, they don’t deal with the possible cause of brain expansion, which nobody has yet explained. My apparently original explanation calls for rational discussion, which so far you have not yet provided. Attempted diversion through “bony problem” now dealt with three times.

Bony problems are not a diversion. They represent a major problem for your theory. I don't remember your answer, so please repeat it. As for expansion, God did it. As for rational discussion, see above, which states it is just vivid imagination, not based on current facts.

Under “Introducing the brain”:
"Senior author of the study, Dr. Penny Spikins, from the Department of Archaeology said: "More sophisticated tools like the Boxgrove handaxes start to appear around the same time as our hominin ancestors were developing much bigger brains. (DAVID’s bold)

DAVID: Note the bold once again associating the advances in technique with brain size. It is known that erectus brain size increased from the time they first appeared. This also fits my idea that the bigger brain allows for thought advances, that is, learning to use it as knowledge builds and is passed on.

dhw: Your bold in no way contradicts my theory that the first handaxes would have been the cause of the expansion. Three cheers for homo erectus, who clearly began with a smaller brain but went on expanding it through his thought advances (or “hard thinking”). Or are you now saying that your God must have kept “stepping in” and dabbling erectus’ continued brain expansion to enable him to think more advanced thoughts as time passed? And this in spite of the fact that as a dualist you believe that only the soul does the thinking?

My approach never changes. God enlarged the erectus brain during its time on Earth, and the soul, using the more advanced brain size and possibly more complex networks used them for more advanced designs of artifacts.