More miscellany (Evolution)

by David Turell , Sunday, July 07, 2024, 18:15 (137 days ago) @ dhw

Theodicy

dhw: […] Please stop pretending that the answer is to pretend there is no problem.

DAVID: Proportionality' admits a problem exists.

dhw; And its solution to the problem is to forget about the problem because there is far more good than evil. You have ignored at least two other common theological explanations (human free will, God’s punishment) as well as your own (God’s “challenge”, and God’s desire to make life more interesting). So much for your “standard response”.

All apply as you point out. Proportionality is still the major answer.

Offshoot from Giraffes

DAVID: No contradictions: I have a religious God and a philosophical God. Two views of the same God.

dhw: In your theory of evolution, your “religious” God is perfect, omniscient, omnipotent, and handles evolution beautifully, while your “philosophical” God is imperfect, messy, cumbersome and inefficient. That is your “dichotomy”, or your schizophrenic Jekyll and Hyde, but still you refuse to acknowledge the blatant contradiction, and refuse to consider the possibility that your theory might be wrong.

Any theory might be wrong. I have preferences and you can't find any.

Plants control water in the desert

DAVID: Yes, you understand my problem.

dhw: Thank you for recognizing your problem, which is the utter absurdity of trying to defend blatant contradictions in your own theories, and in opposition to alternatives. Perhaps it is time for you to open your mind.

With two different approaches my mind is wide open.

Introducing the brain

DAVID: Bit by bit the deep complexity of our brain is yielding its secrets, in the most complex living organ in the universe. It originated in the Cambrian Explosion without precursors and evolved to our form. By far it is the strongest argument for a designer.

dhw: I’ve always accepted that the Cambrian “gap” is real, but I’ve always felt uncomfortable with the authoritative statement that there were no precursors. A common explanation (also Darwin’s) is that the fossil record is and was always bound to be incomplete. Purely out of curiosity, I’ve done some googling, and came across the following article […]
For reasons of space, I shan’t reproduce yesterday’s quote, as the conclusion is enough:
QUOTE: “The planarian is thus not only the first animal to possess a brain, but may be the ancestor of the vertebrate brain.”
It’s only a theory, but planarians apparently go back 839 million years, i.e. 300 million years before the Cambrian.

DAVID: Great find!! I reviewed the article, and a tiny set of neurons are described. Interestingly in the Ediacaran Fossil Group are they plants or animals is discussed, and the preservation is poor, no brains are described. But the planarians had a very early form so the gap to Cambrian brains is still a mighty gap.

dhw: You claimed that the brain originated in the Cambrian without precursors. The article says that there were precursors. Of course there are mighty gaps between primitive early forms and later complexities, but if planarian brains may be the ancestors of vertebrate brains, we can hardly say for sure that the vertebrate brain had no precursors!

Reaching for straws! The real precursors are early primitive neurons, not invented in the Cambrian. The Cambrians used them to produce advanced brains. This means the Ediacaran's had neurons.