Brain expansion: different theories about rapid expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Thursday, August 20, 2020, 14:12 (1338 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I take it that you are now prepared to consider the possibility that just like sapiens’ complexification, reshaping, shrinkage and minor expansion, the major expansions of pre-sapiens brains took place without your God’s direct intervention. (But with the proviso that your God was the inventor of the mechanism that caused the expansions.)

DAVID: All I am willing to accept is the 35,000 year-old reshaping of brain and skull were adaptations available from epigenetic mechanisms provided by God in the same species. God speciates and made major brain enlargements by His direct action. You continually suggest God MIGHT have 'done something' to maintain your balance on the agnostic picket fence.

dhw: So although you believe your God provided a mechanism whereby the sapiens brain complexified, reshaped itself, shrank and produced minor expansions without him lifting a metaphorical finger, you won’t even consider the mere possibility that the same mechanism might have produced major enlargements through the same process of responding to new requirements. The only possible theory for you is that periodically your God stepped in to perform an operation on the heads of a few hominids and homos.

My presentation of molecule's errors makes it imperative that God controls all evolutionary genome advances.

dhw: And yes of course it’s “MIGHT”. The theory itself is a might, and God’s existence and mode of operation are also a might. That is not in order to maintain my balance on the fence. I am on the fence because I don’t KNOW anything for sure, and have not found any theory that convinces me strongly enough to have faith in it.

You have faith in design. Remember!

DAVID: I will never accept your intelligent cell theory. God simply made them look intelligent.

dhw: Your refusal to accept that something which looks intelligent and acts intelligently might actually BE intelligent is what I would call bias.

DAVID: It is 50/50 odds on the surface of it. Your bias is showing.

dhw: I hope your tongue is having fun in your cheek! The odds are 50/50, but you will never accept the theory. And this apparently means that my bias is showing!

DAVID: Only one of us is correct, and you are as biased as I am.

dhw: I must confess I find your theory that your God preprogrammed or dabbled every species, lifestyle and natural wonder - and performed overnight operations on brains, skulls and pelvises - considerably less likely than the theory that he gave cells the ability to do their own designing. But I stop short of insisting that the latter theory is the one and only possible truth. That is the difference between us.

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