Human evolution; savannah theory fading (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, August 16, 2022, 18:13 (828 days ago) @ dhw

Brain expansion

DAVID: A designer knows when His design is complete.

dhw: Which brings us back to the question why your all-powerful God designed umpteen varieties of hominins, homos and brains before finally producing the only one he actually wanted to design. But of course, only God knows why, and he couldn’t possibly have been experimenting, or getting new ideas as he went along, because such a theory entails human thought patterns, and he only has those human thought patterns of which you approve.

I have presented to you the evidence that God prefers to evolve all of His creations. Must
I repeat? He evolved the universe, Earth, life.

dhw: And how do you know his exact wishes, and how does this prove that he did NOT give cells the ability to multiplY?

DAVID: Cells do multiply. Why did you ask? And I have said we cannot know God's personal reasons.

dhw: You keep telling us that early brain cells could not have added to their number, and so God had to engineer their expansion (multiplication). Do you now accept that early brains might have had an autonomous mechanism for expansion as well as for complexification?

Our brain's abilities reflect the past brains. I assume thet\y worked as ours does, new neurons in hippocampus only,.

DAVID: And you have offered no answer for the pelvic problem as before.

DAVID: It turns out our birth canal is still tough to navigate.

dhw: Yes indeed, so why do you think our pre-historic ancestors had no trouble back in the days when baby skulls got bigger?

DAVID: I'm sure they faced the same obstetric problems we do.

dhw: Probably a darn sight worse. So what is all this about God arranging it “so new heads fit into new sized brains all at once”?

Old homo birth canals were just like ours under God's deigns.

Hemispherectomy

QUOTES: "Adults who had one half of their brain removed in childhood to treat seizures can still recognise faces and words at a reasonably high level, suggesting that the organ can reorganise itself after major childhood surgery.”
“The fact that above-chance and broadly comparable performance for face and word recognition can be achieved following childhood hemispherectomy attests to the remarkable adaptability of the juvenile brain,” says David Wilkinson at the University of Kent in the UK."

DAVID: Makes the point!!!

dhw: It certainly does. You could hardly have a clearer illustration of the way brain cells autonomously change themselves in order to meet new requirements. Or do you think your God pops in to perform additional operations after the surgeons have done their job?

No, He gave the brain the abilities we see. No stepping in.