Re: Does evolution mean that nature has intelligence?

<warrenne@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think it was St Thomas Aquinas who made the assertion taking a quote
from the Bible that men don't gather grapes from thorns or figs from
thistles. So if you are an intelligent being you cannot be the product
of a stupid, unintelligent universe. There seems to be some sense to
that view. If evolution is true would that mean that nature has
intelligence? Is it correct to say that nature expresses intelligence
through natural selection? I apologize in advance if I am beating an
already dead horse as I have said before in my other posts I am still
new so please be kind.

It is a bit of a dead horse, but let me respond. The historical
creationism of tradition theism has indeed made the assertion that
intelligence cannot come from addition of non-intelligence. It also
asserted that life cannot come from non-life, that complexity cannot
come from simplicity and that motion cannot come from non-moving things.

There is no real reason to think any of these things. Motion can come
from potential energy, complexity can come from what mathematicians call
"mathematical induction", life can come from protobiotic reactions, and
intelligence is turning out to be the result of the addition and growth
of parts of brains.

These claims made by Aquinas and others all the way back to Socrates
(see David Sedley's amazingly marvellous book on the history) are
founded on what we might call a "degradation" perspective -
complex/intelligent/living/motive things (CILM henceforth) can only
change by *losing* features (in the older literature this is called
"corruption" or "devolution"). But why think that? Because the notion of
causation here is one of loss - the prime mover moves the universe, that
moves the various lesser spheres, and so on to the lunar sphere, which
is the least moved. This causes heat where the lunar and terrestrial
spheres meet, which moves things on earth.

But the scientific notion of cause is one of *conservation* - powers,
forces and masses are maintained in causal processes, and if you add
them together, you get a greater cause (think of the difference between
a skyrocket and the Saturn V). So if you add things together, by
necessity or chance, the result is bigger/greater/more complex than the
causes. CILMs are possible because of addition.

There's a teleological and metaphysical underpinning to the traditional
view that has unfortunately been ossified in theology, but it isn't
necessary to think that lesser things can only come from greater, and
vice versa.

Sedley, David N. 2007. Creationism and its critics in antiquity, Sather
classical lectures. Berkeley, CA; London: University of California
Press.
--
John S. Wilkins, Philosophy, University of Sydney
scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts
But al be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Does evolution mean that nature has intelligence?
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    (talk.origins)
  • Re: The Ultimate Source of Creation?
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  • Re: Advanced ID Theory Smeared With Religion
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  • Advanced ID Theory Smeared With Religion
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    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Can any old earther refute common genetic ancestry?
    ... accomplish such complexity is much easier to believe. ... It's obvious you are unable to explain how evolution could cause ... belief in a universe plus a god? ... have happened and no universe or no matter then no life. ...
    (talk.origins)