Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Okay.
But what is instinct?
There's largely no explanation for it.
A few years ago I remember either posting a thread or gave a long response to someone about research into quantum entanglement as a possible explanation for how birds migrate.
Awesome. Science has given quantum entanglement a name and established it as a thing. But actually nobody really knows why two particles can interact even when separated by great distances.
That would be because distance and time, as we measure and experience them with our consciousness, are illusions at our macrolevel of the spacetime field. The field is actually all that exists, not the individual manifestations that we occupy ourselves with. While this makes perfect sense to me, I do not expect you to accept or understand this view.
Quote:
We are really no further on, frankly.
Some animals abandon their young only a few days after birth and yet the animal knows how to survive.
Several species live almost their entire lives in practical isolation. They somehow just know what to do.
Why?
My previous efforts to convey the underpinnings of the quantum spacetime field (unified consciousness field) have failed miserably, so I am not confident I would succeed in this endeavor. It is too far removed from our physical experiences as separate physical creatures.
And why was my paternal grandmother outraged that Mass would be in English when she couldn't understand a word of Latin?
Because Latin struck her as mystical mumbo jumbo and magic and that was why she went to church.
English was just too mundane.
I remember as a child, after the mass was translated into English, that the priest said "Go, the Mass is ended" and it always engendered gales of stifled laughter. The Latin version was much much classier.
Because Latin struck her as mystical mumbo jumbo and magic and that was why she went to church.
English was just too mundane.
I remember as a child, after the mass was translated into English, that the priest said "Go, the Mass is ended" and it always engendered gales of stifled laughter. The Latin version was much much classier.
LOL. Yes, when the priest said, "The mass is ended. Go in peace. Thanks be go to god", it deed seem as if were being thankful that the mass was over.
Of course, good old Father Doran could do a mass in 24 minutes flat. And one day when his replacement had taken over, on the front steps after mass he asked how I had enjoyed the mass. I said, "Well, if I wanted to sit in church for over an hour, I would have stayed in the Methodist church". That did not go over well.
LOL. Yes, when the priest said, "The mass is ended. Go in peace. Thanks be go to god", it deed seem as if were being thankful that the mass was over.
Of course, good old Father Doran could do a mass in 24 minutes flat. And one day when his replacement had taken over, on the front steps after mass he asked how I had enjoyed the mass. I said, "Well, if I wanted to sit in church for over an hour, I would have stayed in the Methodist church". That did not go over well.
It doesn't seem like you wanted to be there. Why did you go?
Okay.
But what is instinct?
There's largely no explanation for it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruithne
We are really no further on, frankly.
Some animals abandon their young only a few days after birth and yet the animal knows how to survive.
Several species live almost their entire lives in practical isolation. They somehow just know what to do.
Why?
Instinct is just evolved behavior that usually works and therefore survives to be passed on. That is why moths fly into flames, they are using behavior that usually works when the lights is not a flame.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruithne
A few years ago I remember either posting a thread or gave a long response to someone about research into quantum entanglement as a possible explanation for how birds migrate.
Awesome. Science has given quantum entanglement a name and established it as a thing. But actually nobody really knows why two particles can interact even when separated by great distances.
The thinking and making decisions is in the province of consciousness which most atheists refuse to see as playing any role as the substrate for our Reality.
Of course we refuse to see, because you have no evidence for this claim, it goes against what we know, raises more questions than it answers, and in fact does not answer any questions better than what neuroscience tells us. We have considered your argument and found it needs more data.
Instinct is just evolved behavior that usually works and therefore survives to be passed on. That is why moths fly into flames, they are using behavior that usually works when the lights is not a flame.
Now that is a great question, and I do not know the answer. I could make guesses, but I would not be able to say which guess is more probable.
Great questions indeed and will make anyone with an interest in the Woo -end of science go "Hmmm?" But they are questions for scientists, not for atheists, and we have to ask why anyone is supposing they are.
We know why. It is this creationist -derived apologetic that 'science is at a loss. It does NOT know or have the answer to everything as (the creationist apologetic goes on) it likes to claim, therefore it only has beliefs about things and the Believers' arguments (Interpretation of the evidence) are just as valid as the scientists'. So scientific evidence can be dismissed where it conflicts with religious claims.
That I would argue is how that works, where it came from and it's even raised here. And it is a shocker how much of an integral meme of American thinking and thence to the rest of the world, science - skepticism has become. It is even promoted (uncannily like the Big Lie that 'Faith is Good) as a fine and Free view to have. And it benefits nobody other than those who would keep people ignorant in order to continue to exploit them.
Instinct is just evolved behavior that usually works and therefore survives to be passed on. That is why moths fly into flames, they are using behavior that usually works when the lights is not a flame.
.
Yes, I get that.
My point is that 'behavior' is not easily explainable in terms of evolution.
Physical evolution is very easily explainable in evolutionary terms.. If you are not familiar, one of the best examples is the famous peppered moth. It's the example i always use to explain evolution to non believers.
The peppered moth lived on chimneys in industrial Britain. It's color was black and white speckles and so was greatly camouflaged by the soot on the chimneys so birds could not see them easily.. As factories were required to clean up their act, smoke was reduced and the buildings surfaces were cleaned, leaving the peppered moth exposed, no longer camouflaged by the blackened buildings. The birds would pick off the darker speckled moths that were now more easily seen and the whiter ones survived as they were better camouflaged. The peppered moth evolved to be a whiter, less speckled version in just a few years.
This is a great and clear example of natural selection in action. You can see it and you can explain it. It's simple, it's clear.
My point about behavior is that it's not always so easily explained.
How does that puffer fish know how to build a perfectly symmetrical concentric pattern of circles and decorate the ridges with shells?
Some kind of inbuilt memory from previous generations? That's a highly complex process. It's not just 'I'm hungry, I eat'. The fish actually builds something.
My point is, how does it know?
It's a question of complex conscious processing that is inbuilt in the fish's DNA somehow. How can a conscious process be passed on generation to generation?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
