(January 21, 2015 at 3:42 pm)tantric Wrote: I've always been interested in the idea that evolution is a directional process, not because it's guided by a creator, but due to a natural property of emergent behavior in complex systems. The history of life on earth seems to show certain trends:
1)The maximum degree of encephalization present on the planet has increased over time.
2)The maximum degree of complexity has increased over time.
3)The depth of mutualistic symbiotic relationships has increased over time in some species.
Now, I get the idea that if life here had a beginning and that life doesn't evolve into unlife, that due to the 'drunken walk' there is a tendency towards order, but I see a bit more than that. Part of this is from studying Dual Inheritance Theory. If this theory is correct, then the species in which is happens (humans, whales, a few others) have evolved the capacity to evolve on an entirely different scale that isn't dependent on DNA or random mutations. However, when I try to talk about this, it always comes back to the idea of 'humans are special', which seems to be anathema to the scientific atheist crown, because it's associated with xtian ideas. But that's not why see intelligence as being special - it's the large brain's ability to evolve culturally and potentially to use cultural evolution to directly guide genetic evolution.
Thoughts?
The bolded statement is not controversial. Homo sapiens is the only species that understands evolution and can counter it and/or guide it.
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
