More "miscellany" PART ONE (General)

by dhw, Friday, May 12, 2023, 12:11 (322 days ago) @ David Turell

PART ONE

The human brain

dhw: I ask you why you think he would have given past brains the autonomous power to complexify and to enlarge the hippocampus but could not possibly have given them the autonomous power to expand other parts of the brain. You keep dodging the question.

DAVID: I've not dodged. I fully disagree with your wished self-expanding brains. I use our current brain as fact: it appeared 315,000 years ago with few requirements compared to now. Still handling them!!! All past brains did the same. God speciates, no species speciate on their own.

“Fully disagreeing” does not constitute an answer! Yes, all past brains dealt autonomously with new requirements until their capacity for autonomous complexification became inadequate, and then they expanded and the same process was repeated. Our brains resulted from an expansion, but from then on, complexification took over (apart from the autonomous expansion of the hippocampus), and you are quite right: all brains dealt and deal autonomously with new requirements by complexifying. If your God gave all past brains the autonomous ability to complexify, and he gave the hippocampus the autonomous ability to expand, WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOUR ALL-POWERFUL GOD ALSO TO HAVE GIVEN OTHER PARTS OF EARLIER BRAINS THE AUTONOMOUS ABILITY TO EXPAND?

Responses without a brain

DAVID: I simply have a vast background in modern biochemistry.

dhw: And apparently folk like McClintock, Margulis, Buehler and Shapiro knew/know nothing about biochemistry.

DAVID: All knew a great deal of biochemistry. You have fallen for their hyperbole about how brilliantly the cell operates, as if innately intelligent. That fits your preconceived wishes.

dhw: I have no preconceived wishes, other than to find logical explanations for the history of life as we know it. Why should I believe that your “vast background in modern biochemistry” proves that their vast background has led them to a totally wrong conclusion?

DAVID: We live outside living cells so guesses about where the information for life comes from are two. The cells do it themselves or cells are programmed to do it. God programs cells.

Not the information for life. Shapiro does not attempt to explain the origin of the living, intelligent cell. His theory explains evolution. But you are right: either cells are intelligent or they are not. So why should your “vast background in modern biochemistry” prove that their vast background leads Shapiro & Co. to a totally wrong conclusion?

Origin of humans

DAVID: God changed them so they could leave the trees.

dhw: So you stand by that theory and reject the possibility that a group of apes might have left the trees, found that life on the ground gave them a better chance of survival, and in due course their bodies adapted to the new conditions.

DAVID: I do.

So be it.

Dawkins dissed again and again

dhw: I’d love to know what Jarvis’s new theory is, and whether he has ever considered James A. Shapiro’s theory of natural genetic engineering via the intelligence of cells. As for Dawkins, I must confess I thought your heading must refer to his book "The God Delusion", but I don’t think current research on gene behaviour will help very much in our quest for the truth about God’s existence, purposes, methods and nature.

DAVID: Jarvis didn't tell us, if he has one. I think biochemical studies will continue to show a complexity of design, requiring God, the designer.

But you would say the same regardless of whether Dawkins’ “selfish gene” theory was confirmed or disproved.

A new discovery

QUOTE: “The newfound fossils also offer an unparalleled glimpse into a dynamic chapter of evolution called the great Ordovician biodiversification event. “This is when life started to get really interesting,” Muir says. “As animals diversified, ecosystems became a lot more complicated.”

DAVID: a great new find. No important gaps closed.

dhw: But a massive mystery for anyone who claims that God designed them all for the sole purpose of designing sapiens plus food. And as I have pointed out before, we would need to explore every inch of the planet before claiming that there is nothing to close the “important gaps” – and even then, can we really expect a record of every species that ever lived?

DAVID: Answered in today's entry on fossil gaps.

See Part Two


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