Explaining natural wonders (Animals)

by David Turell , Thursday, April 27, 2017, 20:22 (2546 days ago) @ dhw

TONY: I don't particularly have an issue with saying that organisms are intelligent, just that the intelligence is very, very limited. It is not difficult to imagine god imprinting birds with the concept of a nest and allowing their limited intelligence to tweak that concept without allowing them going beyond the concept of 'nest'.

dhw: I agree that there are degrees of intelligence, and some organisms are more limited than others. But, still wearing my theist’s hat, I see no reason why one should assume that your God would not have given the first nest-builders the intelligence to use their beaks and claws and the materials available to build themselves a safe home up in the trees. And I certainly can’t see why he would find it necessary to teach one particular bird how to build one particular variation. Ditto for migration, camouflage, parasitism, hunting techniques, defensive techniques, symbiotic relationships etc. etc. Yes, limited intelligence, but intelligence all the same, without the need for your God to preprogramme or dabble or “imprint” anything except, perhaps, intelligence itself.

You are still blindly limited to the complexity you want these limited brains to provide. Those brains do learn and respond as I've shown today, but in a limited way:

Thursday, April 27, 2017, 18:46

Dhw: If you really can’t tell me what you mean by guidelines, you should not be surprised that I have a problem with them.
DAVID: 'Guidelines' obviously means there are instructions in the genome we haven't found, or God offers directions directly (by dabbling).

dhw: So “guidelines” turn out to be the same as preprogramming or direct instructions. That makes the weaverbird, the wasp, the spider, the cuttlefish, the monarch butterfly etc. into automatons, with no inventive intelligence of their own.

I've shown today there are limited brain functions, if brains are present.

dhw: So your God designed the urchin’s spikes and all the other natural wonders because his only purpose was to design humans. As I said before, your God – who let us remember is now without limitations – moves in mysterious ways. See above for a less mysterious hypothesis.

You are again avoiding the issue of supplying energy so evolutionn can proceed.