Brain expansion: different theories about rapid expansion (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, September 02, 2020, 19:57 (1325 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Your 'if he designed' doesn't tell us what God could foresee in humans' future activities. Did He see chess or tennis coming? I'm not sure.

dhw:You wrote that your God’s expansion meant he anticipated “how that enlargement will be used”. When I said this could only mean he knew we would invent cricket and the piano, you replied: “The phrase in no way meant God knew the specifics of what we would invent.” Now you are not sure!

You over interpret everything I write. I am sure He anticipated various uses, but I'm certainly not sure about which specific activities He might have anticipated..

DaVID: Silly supposition. God's complexification brain program responds to our uses and needs without Him stepping in.

dhw: Thank you for once again confirming that the brain did learn how to adapt itself on its own, without any intervention from your God.

His complexification system is so thorough the brain can handle its changes without Him. But the results is all because of God's design!!

DAVID: Once again you have our brain inexplicably expanding. Areas in our brain make tiny enlargements for specialized tasks, nothing more. No evidence for your theory.

dhw: I have provided a theoretical explanation for the unexplained expansion, and the fact that our brain – which no longer expands – still makes small enlargements may be regarded as evidence that the brain is capable of making enlargements. And the evidence for your divine dabble is….?

The obvious need for a designer

DAVID: Our brain stopping enlargement leads only to the conclusion major steps in evolution are over. Theories should fit the facts we know and not contort them.

dhw: We are not discussing whether evolution is over, but your final comment is spot on. Please tell us what facts are contorted by the proposal that just as the modern brain changes itself IN RESPONSE to new requirements by complexifying and sometimes producing a few new cells, earlier brains may have functioned (it’s a theory) through the same process, but produced a lot more new cells than the modern brain, which has now stopped expanding? (Enhanced complexification also led to the redundancy of certain cells.)

DAVID: Your comment precisely ignores a tenet of evolutionary theory that present organs are built upon the attributes of past designs. What our brain does is an example to what past brains did, perhaps without the shrinkage.

dhw: Thank you for this very clear support for my theory. Our brain, as you have told us, “has the adaptability to react to any and all physical and mental and emotional demands we place on it.” It even adds a few cells when necessary. (Shrinkage results from the enhanced efficiency of complexification, and would not have occurred if the requirement was for new cells.) According to my theory, present organisms are built upon the attributes of past designs. There is no sudden leap – as if your God had performed an operation to introduce new brains, skulls and pelvises. Our brain does what past brains did, and so past brains would also have complexified and expanded as a REACTION to new requirements, as summarized so perfectly by yourself in the bold above.

Glossing over the multiple problems of new baby skull size, pelvis birth canal size, and Dad's contribution genetically doesn't solve or answer in any way your skull/brain growth theory. The sentence after the bold ignores all of it!! All we have as evidence is 200 cc jumps in brain size and better artifacts with the human fossils. I have my designer as the best answer I can think of.