autonomy v. automaticity (Evolution)

by dhw, Monday, March 19, 2018, 12:40 (2229 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: As with all of nature’s wonders, you cannot imagine organisms working out their own special ways of doing things – they are all specially designed by God, and so the nest of the weaverbird had to have special knots in order to provide energy for life to go on until your God could produce the one thing he wanted to produce, which was the brain of Homo sapiens. It has never made sense, even to you.

DAVID: Of course it makes perfect sense to me. The bag design is perfect protection for the eggs. Open cup nests are attacked all the time.

dhw: So what is your theory about other birds and their nests? God just left them to do their own designing (ah, autonomy at last!), and it’s sheer luck that they and their eggs survived? Was the weaver the only bird that required special attention in order to ensure life went on so that God could fulfil his one and only purpose of producing the brain of Homo sapiens?

DAVID: Your question requires research into the particular econiche in which the weaver plays a role. Such research has answered the question like this, as I have shared before.

So what is your theory about other birds? Did they autonomously work out how to build their inferior, egg-endangering nests, or did your God give them instructions too? I can’t remember why the weaverbird’s econiche was of special significance in the evolution of the human brain, so perhaps you can remind me?