Miscellany (General)

by David Turell , Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 15:04 (1075 days ago) @ dhw

BATS

DAVID: Anything is possible. Secondhand design is very impractical.

dhw: That depends on what the design is for. If your God wanted an ever-changing bush of life, what could be more practical than an almost infinite variety of intelligent organisms autonomously dealing with an almost infinite variety of situations and making their own decisions and designs, culminating in humans,

That assume a different God from the one I believe in whose final goal was humans with consciousness.

The obstetric dilemma

DAVID: Instant solutions don't occur naturally. That is always my point. God speciates.

dhw: So you still insist that every adaptation and every cure and every symbiotic relationship and every strategy in life's history was either pre-programmed 3.8 billion years ago or has been directly dabbled beforehand, in anticipation, by your God.

I've not changed.

Different species cooperate

DAVID: Note today's entries about bird brains and their intelligence which I fully accept. Octopi are very intelligent, considering their antics in study laboratories.

dhw: So why do you restrict their actions to “instinct”?

The octopus helped the grouper. It was not clear in the description the grouper really helped the octopus.

Weird dinoflagellates
QUOTE: "It shows that nature can work in a completely different way than we thought,” says Salazar. “There are so many possibilities for what could have happened as life evolved.'"

DAVID: Perhaps common descent is not so 'common'.

dhw: Perhaps from the start cells were endowed with the means to design their own methods of survival, and that is why we have “so many possibilities”.

The only facts we have are epigenetic minor adaptations. I have a God speciates theory to cover the gap of the black box we have about speciation.

Bird brains small but intelligent
DAVID: Some birds are as intelligent as dolphins and primates:

QUOTES: "In fact, as we find out more about bird intelligence, the more we are beginning to realize that certain groups of birds are among the most intelligent of all animals.”
"...birds and mammals are very different types of animal. However, the basic “body plan” of both–i.e. having a backbone, four limbs, eyes, ears, a skull containing a brain, etc.–reveals their shared ancestry.

Clear confirmation of common descent, as well as clear evidence of conscious intelligence. And who knows how far back in time and in species this intelligence may go?

Bird brains’ similar neurons
QUOTE: "In both birds and mammals, these neurons are thought to support advanced cognitive functions, such as memory, individual recognition and associative learning, Spool says."

DAVID: This study shows the key factor in common descent in evolution: what is developed and works well in the past carries into the future evolving forms. The process of evolution is a continuum.

dhw: Yes indeed. Each branch of existence goes its own way to create the vast variety of intelligent insects, birds, fish, mammals etc. plus food supplies, 99% of which diversified away from the bacteria-to-human branch and had no connection with it, thereby rendering absurd the hypothesis that every living form was “part of the goal of evolving [= specially designing] humans” plus food supply.

Thank you for accepting the very necessary food supply from the huge diverse bush. All natural, with no God in evidence running the process. When I offer this challenge from my belief view, you will slip in a little God lip service. I am not absurd for believing in God..