Human evolution; savannah theory fading (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, August 01, 2022, 20:07 (843 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: As explained in the other thread God's possible reactions to his creations are secondary events, never on purpose as a cause of creation.

dhw: I’m not talking about reactions! I asked you what was his purpose for creating humans, and the above was your answer.

DAVID: The simple answer was His right to produce thinking beings for no other purpose than that.

dhw: You have proposed that he enjoys creating and is interested in his creations, and he might have produced thinking beings so that they could think about him and recognize him etc. I find these theories perfectly acceptable, and have asked why you consider them to be less “humanizing” than my own. Opting to have no theories at all about his purpose is, of course, another option.

Your humanized God seeks entertainment and allows evolution to proceed as a free-for-all. My view of God sees Him as fully purposeful at all times, creating without any self-needy desires.

Brain expansion
DAVID: Our brain came with excess neurons or shrinkage could not logically have occurred. That cells had to be used and then had to be thrown away makes no sense.

dhw: You keep ignoring my explanation, so all I can do is repeat it. Our brain came with more neurons than those of our predecessors. I propose that those neurons would have been added for a specific purpose, though we can only speculate on what that might have been. (Weirdly, you proposed the purpose was to give us free will, as if our earlier ancestors were all automatons.)

We've discussed this in the past and I've said all previous brains were similar and all had free will. I doubt they shrunk as ours has. God added those extra neurons to allow us freedom of brain development as we learned to fully use it.

dhw: However, as the brain was no longer capable of further expansion – probably because that would have involved major changes to the anatomy – complexification took over from expansion and proved so efficient that cells which had been essential in the past now became redundant. Hence shrinkage. You have accepted this explanation, but now you ignore it again.

Your continual use of an anatomic theory dismisses the evidence from the Neanderthals whose skulls were bigger with no problem evident. We both agree about shrinkage.

DAVID: As we civilized our brains had constant expansion of use. Our brain arrived with the complexification mechanism in place, to be used as required, as you agree.

dhw: Yes, that is precisely what I propose: our new uses were implemented through complexification and not through the addition of new cells. And complexification proved to be so efficient etc., as bolded above. What’s the problem?

The problem is your interpretation of the original added neurons and how they became present. There is no known required mew complex usage that drove their appearance from a natural cause, considering the simplistic lifestyle of our immediate predecessors.