Brain expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell @, Tuesday, July 07, 2020, 18:48 (1361 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: At least three times now I have drawn your attention in bold to my statement: “nobody knows what requirements the pre-sapiens brain was responding to…The 315,000-year old Moroccan fossils were accompanied by their artefacts, but I can’t insist that it was their implementation that caused the expansion.”

The Moroccan fossils did not have any newly advanced artifacts, which destroys your theory of expansion by implementation. thank you for the admission.


DAVID: You obviously don't try to think clearly about God's work. I look at the facts and interpret what I see as logical reasons."We" didn't do the shrinking. God gave us a brain that had the designed-in mechanism for shrinkage by plasticity, thus allowing us to tailor our brains for every new use.

dhw: You have conveniently left out your own comment: that God “wanted us to do the modification ourselves by the plasticity mechanism He gave our brain”. It was I who told you that “we” didn’t do the shrinking, and yes the brain has a possibly God-given mechanism (I call it cellular intelligence) for changing itself, whether by expansion, complexification or shrinkage,

DAVID: That concept neatly explains what happened, but all you do is end up puzzled.

dhw: My concept certainly does, and I don’t find it puzzling at all. I am only puzzled by your idea that God fiddles with brains, skulls and pelvises overnight, and also gave us more neural networks than we needed.

Fully explained and you seem to accept it above in bold. I agree 'we didn't do it',the brain did it with God's implanted mechanism.


DAVID: Do our brains have plasticity or not? I view the design as clever, anticipating use by free-will humans with consciousness. I know I cannot get into God's mind, but a little reasonable thought arrives at reasonable reasons. Sorry you are blind to them.

dhw: Yes, our brains have plasticity. And I have no idea what free will has to do with the expansion of the brain, since “we” do not consciously organize complexification, expansion or shrinkage. I don’t know what reasonable thought has led you to conclude that God did a dabble for each expansion although he gave the modern brain its own autonomous mechanism for complexification and shrinkage and adding ability.

Simple: God runs evolution and its history tells us what He decided to do.


Under “brain complexity”: "A lot of people don't realize that the brain is made up not just of nerve cells, but also cells that keep the brain healthy, and even the space in between cells is packed with fascinating interactions."

dhw: A nice way of describing the cooperation of cell communities which lies at the heart of Shapiro’s and Talbott’s and my own proposal concerning how evolution works, including that of the brain.

My counter thought is the cells all perform under God-given instructions.


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