Quote:
Originally Posted by TroutDude
In part, I agree.
Curiosity is a marker of intelligence and is found in many species. It's what makes us want to solve problems.
Sometimes that means making mathematical marks on a chalk board and sometimes it means finding a stick long enough to stab the worm.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by willingsniper
Monkeys and apes are very smart. They use tools and sign language to communicate. We get our curiosity from our shared ancestry
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I agree. I am thinking - and it's probably just me so far - that these instincts we have have a purpose. They were evolved reactions to help survival. The feeling of individuality, group identity, that 'something' is helping us, curiosity.
They are our human characteristics and can be very helpful. But like a lot of evolved stuff, do not always have moral outcomes.
Individuality leads to arrogance, closed -mindedness and dictators.
group identity leads to gangs, feuds and war.
'something is helping us' leads to fatalism, myth and fanaticism
curiosity leads to accidents, more accidents and the Bomb.
That is no reason to set them aside. As the religious say, even though we may decide religion is true, we have a Need for it.
What we should do is understand these instincts and use them for our benefit, not let them use us for our harm. We should apply reasion and human morality to them.
Not religious morality which is human morality perverted to give the credit and authority to religion, when all the time we apply human morality to the doings of gods and say 'This is good - isn't that god wonderful? That was bad, so it must be blamed on someone else.
Understand our instincts and what they are trying to to us.
Understand the 'God's morality' argument and what they are trying to foist on us. (sorry, forgot for a moment which thread we were in)
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) and therefore cannot rationally deny the evidence that it was how we evolved in the past, like other animals - if they can discard religious prejudices against the idea.
Eusebius is a smart guy and argues with tremendous courage and tenacity. So do they all, all the creationists and anti -evolutionists. But they are wrong in the way they misuse and misinterpret the theories and the evidence. That's what we contest, not their intelligence or even their religion. 
