From: Jim Armstrong (jarmstro@qwest.net)
Date: Tue Sep 16 2003 - 12:58:48 EDT
I don't quite understand the "hard boundary" business in light of
demonstrated learning in many creatures, some of which are quite
different from humans both morphologically and with respect to brain
organization. Can you shed a little more light on this? JimA
RFaussette@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 9/16/03 9:25:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> hvantill@chartermi.net writes:
>
>
>> Yes, we do encounter some conceptual difficulty in specifying a hard
>> boundary between not yet human and human along a continuous
>> evolutionary parent/offspring line. At what particular point would
>> the uniquely human qualities of God awareness, moral awareness, and
>> moral responsibility become present at an "adequate" level? Some
>> millions of years ago the creatures present on Earth had no awareness
>> of God (The Sacred), no awareness of the moral difference between
>> right and wrong, no sense of responsibility to do the right and to
>> shun the wrong. Now there are such creatures -- us. Those uniquely
>> human qualities may have been there potentially millions of years ago
>> (to be actualized much later in time), but not yet actually.
>> Furthermore, many persons find it impossible to think of these human
>> qualities as something that could develop "naturally," that is,
>> without some form of divine intervention.
>
>
>
> The reason animals don't need moral awareness and responsibility at an
> 'adequate' level is because their behavior is instinctive as opposed
> to man's learned behavior with its expanded self consciousness. To
> the degree animal behavior is instinctive it is governed by God,
> morals are unnecessary as there is no free will. To the degree
> behavior is based on learning it requires a moral awareness and
> responsibility. The technical dimensions and implications of this
> "hard boundary" are the subject of the first half of - True
> Religion, the Darwinian Interpretation of Biblical Symbols
>
>
>
>> However, It seems to me that we encounter a similar difficulty in a
>> phenomenon much closer to our own experience -- our own development
>> from a fetus to an adult. Some years ago, as a fetus, each of us had
>> no awareness of God (The Sacred), no awareness of the moral
>> difference between right and wrong, no sense of responsibility to do
>> the right and to shun the wrong. Now, as adults, we have all of those
>> qualities. Those uniquely human qualities may have been there
>> potentially in our fetal stage (to be actualized later in time), but
>> not yet there actually. Uniquely human capabilities developed within
>> us gradually. Furthermore, it seems that we are comfortable with the
>> idea that we developed these capabilities naturally as part of normal
>> human development (without divine intervention, using the
>> developmental gifts of the created world).
>
>
>
> rich faussette
>
>
>> Question: If we are comfortable with this lack of discontinuity in
>> our own gradual and natural developmental history from fetus to
>> adult, why should we be uncomfortable envisioning a similar lack of
>> discontinuity in the history of the species?
>>
>> Howard Van Till
>>
>>
>
>
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