Avatar said:
Womb is a part of the world just as his or her mother is.
After being born baby knows just what to do - reach for the mother's breast, it knows where the mother's breast is, it know what to do with it, and it demands her attention upon any need.
Young turtles after being born know just what a hawk's shadow on the sand looks like and they react appropriate to it, and not any shadow, it has to be in the shape of a predatory bird. Scientists have done experiments with cardboard shapes. Even if all the predatory birds die out and after generations in a zoo turtles will still hide if see such a shadow.
Instincts, nervous wiring, call it what you wish, but there is information there.
How does it get there? You tell me.
It is innate knowledge, human babies have very little compared to other sepcies, our brains have a larger capacity for learning, whereas other species brains less so. Innate knowledge is a fascinating thing. I guess its coded in the genes?
unrelated to thread question but very ineresting link about how learned knowledge is heritable! (In animals at least??)
http://www.grandin.com/references/genetics.html
from above link:
"The Science of Behavior Today
Two years after the Brelands article, Jerry Hirsh (1963) at the University of Illinois wrote a paper emphasizing the importance of studying individual differences. He wrote, "Individual differences are no accident. They are generated by properties of organisms as fundamental to behavior science as thermodynamic properties are to physical science." Today, scientists recognize the contributions of both the Skinnerian and the ethologists approach to understanding behavior Modern neuroscience supports Darwin's view on behavior. Bird and mammal brains are constructed with the same basic design. They all have a brain stem, limbic system, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain used for thinking and flexible problem solving.
The major difference between the brains of people and animals is in the size and complexity of the cortex. Primates have a larger and more complex cortex than a dog or a pig; pigs have a more complex cortex than a rat or a mouse. Furthermore, all animals possess innate species-specific motor patterns which interact with experience and learning in the formation of behavior. Certain behaviors in both wild and domestic animals are governed largely by innate (hard-wired) programs; however, experiencing and learning are the most important factors in other behaviors.
A basic principle to remember is that animals with large, complex brains are less governed by innate behavior patterns. For example, bird behavior is governed more by instinct than that of a dog, whereas an insect would have more hard-wired behavior patterns than that of a bird. This principle was clear to Yerkes (1905) who wrote:
Certain animals are markedly plastic or voluntary in their behavior, others are as markedly fixed or instinctive. In the primates plasticity has reached its highest known stage of development; in the insects fixity has triumphed, instinctive action is predominant. The ant has apparently sacrificed adapt-ability to the development of ability to react quickly, accurately and uniformly in a certain way
Roughly, animals might he separated into two classes: those which are in high degree capable of immediate adaptation to their conditions, and those that are apparently automatic since they depend upon instinct tendencies to action instead of upon rapid adaptation."
and on the subject of demestication and 'heritable' knowledge
"In any event, wolves kept for companions had to be easy to handle and socialize to humans. Within a few generations, early humans may have turned wolves into dogs by selecting and breeding the tamest ones. T
housands of years ago, humans were not aware that behavior in animals was heritable. However, even today people who raise dogs, horses, pigs, cattle, or chickens notice differences in the behavior of the offspring. Some animals are friendly and readily approach people, while others may be shy and nervous."
atheism as defined is disbelief in existance of God, babies are therefore ignorant not atheist.
