Human evolution: savannah theory fading; big brain (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, March 23, 2025, 13:41 (11 days ago) @ David Turell

Direct design versus the intelligent cell

DAVID: You want natural evolution. I have God the designer.

dhw: And now you try to ignore your own agreement and all the above arguments by introducing a totally false representation of my approach. Back we go. Read the bold in my first statement: “Don’t you think it would be less of a chore for him if he just created a mechanism that would perform the same functions?” All my theories allow for God the designer – in this case, as you have agreed, he would have designed the mechanism for complexification (and of course I include enlargement). Please stop pretending that my theories are atheistic, even though you keep agreeing with them!

DAVID: It is you who keep pointing at natural causes for evolutionary changes.

dhw: You keep using the term “natural” as if it was the opposite of “designed by God”. If your God designed a mechanism whereby cells did their own designing, the process itself would become natural, but it would still be your God’s design. You are desperately pretending that my (Shapiro’s) theory is atheistic. No it’s not.

DAVID: I do not see God designing, designing cells. It is secondhand design which is more work than direct design.

Direct design means that every single mutation leading to every single new species, and every single solution to every single problem, and every lifestyle and every natural wonder must have been designed 3.8 billion years ago or, alternatively, that your God has to pop in on every occasion in order to perform the necessary operations or to give the necessary instructions. Designing intelligent cells to carry out all these tasks independently sounds to me like almost infinitely less work than you impose on your do-it-all-yourself God!

The human brain

DAVID: I am convinced our very special brain was designed.

I agree that our brains are special, as is clear from our massively enhanced intelligence, but it also seems reasonable to me that all brains were specially designed, namely by the different cell communities which were responding to new requirements, using their own perhaps God-given forms of intelligence. Or alternatively, do you think your God personally operated on all non-human and pre-sapiens brains as well as on the legs and pelvises of our ancestors? If so, why do you think he chose such a roundabout method of designing the only brains he wanted? No need to answer. You’ve already told us that he’s a messy, cumbersome and inefficient designer.

The savannah theory

DAVID: The savannah theory is now unsupported by the new findings but still a logical theory.

It is “unsupported” by the new findings because the new findings have nothing to do with the question of sapiens’ origin! You have said yourself that no-one knows the origin, so all we can have is unsupported theories, including your own, which attributes the origin to your God performing operations on individual pelvises, legs and possibly brains, though your post above suggests he left brains to design their own evolution until he decided to pop in and do a sapiens special.