Big brain evolution: changes in sapiens skull shape;addendum (Evolution)

by dhw, Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 11:02 (2206 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: If you accept the two realms, a person cannot think in life unless his cortex is functioning. That is the only point I have been making.

dhw: You are simply glossing over the distinction that dualism makes between the mind and the body IN LIFE. (There is no dualism in death.) The whole point of NDEs as evidence is that even though the person’s cortex is NOT functioning, the person is still a thinking being, and therefore the soul/self/consciousness does NOT depend on the brain. The point you have been making, however, is that immaterial pre-sapiens minds could not have had new ideas until their material brains grew bigger, and immaterial intelligence “springs from” the immaterial mind being able to use the brain. Even now you are still insisting that Einstein’s intelligence was the RESULT of his having a bigger cortex. All these points support materialism – and they may be correct, but you claim to be a dualist!

DAVID: I'm not glossing over anything. What happens in life is different than the circumstance in death. In life we must use our brain to reach our s/s/c, nothing more. And only our complex brain has allowed the advances humans have created.

Once more: we ARE our s/s/c. “The s/s/c plays the same role in life and in death: it is the thinking, experiencing, remembering, decision-making YOU. Yes or no?” You replied yes. “Dualists believe that there is an immaterial s/s/c that works with the brain in life, but the same s/s/c separates from the brain in death, and that is the THINKING you.” You responded “I agree”. Of course what happens in life is different from what happens in death, but you agree that your dualism means the s/s/c is what does the THINKING. And of course our complex brain has allowed the advances in the material world. We would not be able to give material expression/implementation to the thoughts of the THINKING s/s/c without our material brains and bodies!

dhw: All brains are different. We know there is enough room inside the skull for areas of the brain to expand. Cab drivers’ immaterial ways of thinking expand their material hippocampus; musicians’ immaterial ways of thinking expand their material auditory cortex. But apparently Einstein’s immaterial ways of thinking depended on his already having had an expanded material prefrontal cortex.

DAVID: No need for an expansion of the skull opposite to your theory that forceful concepts create bigger skulls.

There is obviously still room in the sapiens skull for brain areas to expand! Expansion of the pre-sapiens skull is an established scientific fact. You claim God did it because pre-sapiens couldn’t have come up with new thoughts until he had a bigger brain. If the thoughts of cab drivers and musicians cause expansion to certain areas of the brain, it is logical to deduce that thoughts may have caused expansion to pre-sapiens brains, and the time came when the skull was not large enough to contain the expanding brain, and so the skull expanded.

Dhw: …please note that anyone who insists that thought is impossible without a functioning prefrontal cortex is siding with the materialists.

DAVID: Yes, in life. Death is in a different set of circumstances.

Are you now saying that in life the s/s/c can’t THINK without the pfc, even though you agree that the s/s/c plays the same THINKING role in life as in death? Please clarify what you are saying “yes” to here.


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