Introducing the brain: general (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 20, 2022, 16:38 (977 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: […] God is not creating us for Himself but for us. Let's use a simple example. God creates, but it is a valid guess He does it with no dislike. Thus the fact that we might guess He enjoys it, does not imply a human style of enjoyment. In making that statement I certainly have not humanized him.

dhw: Please explain what you mean by "creating us for us".

We are a purposeful creation, with God not doing it for His own emotional needs

dhw: I don’t know what “with no dislike” is supposed to mean, or what your criteria are for validity when nobody knows the truth.

The valid point we both have made is God would not create if He disliked it.

Memory formation

dhw: You just gave us examples of organs that function without God, and then you asked exactly the question I keep asking: why can’t the brain also work without God?

DAVID: It does in the complexification process.

dhw: Thank you. So God “gives off His designing ability”. Now please tell me why he could not possibly have done the same when it came to brains needing additional cells (= expansion) for further complexification.

DAVID: Complexification is not the brain designing anything new. It is simply a God-given mechanism to develop new axonal, synaptic connections within existing neurons. The neurons God designed come with the instructions of how to do it.

dhw: Complexification works without God, but God provides instructions on how to complexify? I don’t understand your logic. Complexification takes place in response to new ideas, and I propose that expansion (the addition of cells) follows the same process. The new cells do not create the ideas: they come into existence when existing complexification cannot cope with new requirements. The source of the ideas themselves in most cases remains a mystery – hence the conflict between dualism and materialism. Since you are a dualist, you assume that the brain does NOT design anything new.

Complexification works because neurons contain in their DNA God's instructions of how to respond to new uses. Neurons cannot make new neurons except in the hippocampus by God's design. You don't follow the facts we have

DAVID: By the way, if you lose a kidney the remaining one enlarges to handle the load. But a damaged brain can't do that, only consolidate what is left.

dhw: Interesting to learn how these organs which act independently of your God find their own solutions to new problems. Maybe the answer is that – if he exists – he gave them the intelligence to do so.

DAVID: The remaining kidney has God's instructions ready to follow if needed. And the kidney reacts intelligently following instructions. You recognize design and don't understand it all at once.

dhw: You wrote: “Kidneys, lungs, livers etc. work without God. Why can’t the brain?” Now apparently they don’t work without God – they merely follow his instructions. You recognize autonomy and you don’t recognize it all at once.

The autonomy is because the instructions exist from God in all organs working automatically. Twist and turn all you wish, but m ost of hour body runs autonomously under God's design.