Where does intelligence come from?

[Will]

I tend to define intelligence as the core ability or potential to think and reason. Intelligence for me doesn't involve knowledge or wisdom; I think of it as the raw brain power that you have. So what troubles me at times is why we (humans) are able to think the way we do, reason the way we do, and express our thoughts in such a way that we are able to communicate with one another. Furthermore, where does all this creativity come from!?

I know I'm young so there is so much I haven't figured out (and won't figure out). But where do you think intelligence comes from? And doesn't it feel odd that of all the life on this planet, our intelligence is so much greater than other thinking creatures? I don't intend to sound arrogant, because I love animals and I think that they are extremely intuitive and smart, but is it purely luck and coincedence or do you think their is some greater meaning to our intellect?

[orbsycli]

it didn't necessarily come from anything. the way i understand it is, over time our minds, as well as our bodies, evolved into what we are now. history only goes back a few thousand years because this is still relatively new to us, compared to everything else. i really can't say much because well, i really don't know much. but whatever is to come in this thread, just keep in mind that we really aren't that significant. that's the key to acceptance. or is it? or are there many keys? ah who knows, maybe that was a stupid metaphor. if there are many keys, understanding our insignificance would definitaly be one of the bigger ones.

[Will]

I understand what you're saying orbsycli and I agree that our history isn't significant, but it just seems all too conveinent that we've evolved the way we have over all this time. I mean think about how we think and think about how our body's work and everything.. I don't mean to go on a tangent, so let's focus on intelligence. Think about how our minds work. For us to have evolved to this point just seems so conveinent, and I suppose because our individual lives are so short we can never see evolution to any great extent. But I'm curious to hear what other people think.

[orbsycli]

not our history, us..ourselves, the human race! (echo on race)
i'll leave my contribution to this thread at that.

[Will]

yeah... i know what you meant. i'm saying that the history of our race has been short. we've only existed for so long and we've only documented so much of our race's history (we obviously couldn't take note of history before us)

but what i'm saying is i find it so conveinent that we are the way we are. it just seems like there was some greater purpose sometimes.. and i'm not religious at all, but i just find that all of this.. our ability to think, reason, create.. it's wild.

[KickAssClown]

You mean our ability to mentally evolve? That is what has brought us to this point is the fact that we can rapidly adapt to an enviroment due to our ability to mirror that which we see. To comprehend, remember, analyze, and extrapolate. Take something and strech it out to so much more.

We evolved as we have, as I understand it, because we have a structure that has evolved in our brain and a small number of other creatures which allows us to "mirror" things we see. We're furless because of this ability.

Fur attracts bugs, paracites, and molds. When it's cold we just put on some fur rather than grow it ourselves. A mechinizism that would take millions of years to evolve we create in a matter of a few generations. Humans are no more intelligent than anyother creature there is. Just that we have things that give us advantage over other creatures...

I hope this is just me ranting I have a hard time telling some times. Anyway I hope that helps.

[Will]

I disagree with you that we are no more intelligent than other animals. Even within humans there are varying levels of intelligence, however comparing ourselves to other animals you can see that we do possess intellectual superiority to most of them. I don't know many animals that construct city's and do so with purpose in mind.

There are plenty of creatures that create homes and find their niches in them, but do you find animals that write poetry, question the heavens, construct and navigate aircrafts through the air?

My question is where does this intelligence come from. How is it that our brains evolved the way they did? Why are we able to even have this discussion right now? Other animals couldn't, but for some reason we've been gifted with the ability to think the way we do, and my question is why do you think we can?

Is it simply the evolution of our race? Were there gods that created us this way? As I said before, I'm looking for arguments involving philosophy or science.

[alexander]

I don't know many animals that construct city's and do so with purpose in mind.

well aside from arguing that humans are a part of animal kingdom, ants and termites do, and their cities are bigger than ours were until the 20th century, and are still bigger than smaller cities of today, proportionaly to the ant size ofbourse. Purpose? house the colony and protect their eggs(embrios, whatever) and qween...

How is it that our brains evolved the way they did

i think that that can get as phylosophical as how did the universe first come into being. In short i think that due to the bending of the rules of the universe at one point in time a mind started thinking differently due to a mutation, and this mind was able to better survive than the other beings, because species used tools to help themselves out, then about a hundred some odd thousand of years later, bam, we can thing, theorise, test, experiment, do consider things that are less intelligent, less intelligent, and so forth...
Actually i dont think that umans as we are now is the first race of intelligent beings on this planet, I've been fascinated with the possibility of atlantis...

[Biochemist]

Originally Posted by Will

My question is where does this intelligence come from. How is it that our brains evolved the way they did?

There are fundamentally two schools of thought:

1) We evolved by virtue of random events. First, life was created as a product of random events. Subsequent random events yielded even more complex life. In this model, intelligence is a random event. To be consistent, you also need to assume that morality is non-existent, and that free will/choice is impossible. We just have a perception of morality and free will to improve our chances at survival.

2) The other model is that we were created by a Creator that imbued us with certain characteristics, one of which was intelligence. Typically this school also believes that the Creator established some boundaries for morality as well.

[TeleMad]

Originally Posted by Biochemist

There are fundamentally two schools of thought:

1) We evolved by virtue of random events. ... Subsequent random events yielded even more complex life.

No, no, and no. Evolution is not just a series of random events, even though Creationists almost always misrepresent it as such. Evolution also includes NATURAL SELECTION, which is not random.

Biochemist: 2) The other model is that we were created by a Creator that imbued us with certain characteristics, one of which was intelligence. Typically this school also believes that the Creator established some boundaries for morality as well.

Yeah, God showed us that it is moral and righteous to kill someone's children, at least if doing so tests to see if the parent truly loves us. That's what God allowed Satan to do to Job to test Job's love for Him.