More "miscellany" PART ONE (General)

by David Turell @, Friday, May 12, 2023, 19:35 (322 days ago) @ dhw

PART ONE

The human brain

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.

dhw: “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?

My belief in God states God speciates. God makes new brains which acted in the past as ours demonstrates now. It is possible in your airy-fairy way of thinking of a preferred weak God not in full control, as described in the last entry, allowing organisms to self-expand their brains. There are multiple mutations required for changes in brain area's functions, number of new neurons, new web patterns, and changes in skull shape and size. The proper mutations must appear in a coordinated fashion naturally. Not likely for clear thinking folk.


Responses without a brain

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.

dhw: 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?

'
Stop extrapolations. All Shapiro found is bacteria edit their own DNA. That does not explain evolution. His theory hoped our multicellular organism could do that. Curranty they don't.


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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