On Wed, May 10, 2017 at 2:08 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl@lkcl.net> wrote:
the next logical step in the chain was to analyse this emergent
evolutionary process "in general", and to conclude that the
intelligence is *NOT* a "birthright of humanity" as humans like to
arrogantly believe, but is instead an *inherent property of the
underlying fabric of the universe itself*.

*intelligence* is an inherent property of the fabric of the universe,
and we (and all intelligent beings) simply "borrow" that capacity by
being *in* the universe.  which is something that never really
occurred to me before and i find to be utterly, utterly cool.

now, if you want to throw "god" in there in some fashion that's
entirely up to you, but in doing so it really doesn't have very much
to do with the logic or the conclusion.

I'm usually too shy and unsure of myself to actually talk about religion,
but what you are saying here resonants with my beliefs.

I was raised LDS/Mormon, though I've never been a particularly
good example of piety. Personal experience tells me that at least
some of the doctrine is true. Right now I'd rather look at the theology
(or my interpretation of it), and not about it's truth.

> intelligence is *NOT* a "birthright of humanity" as humans like to
> arrogantly believe, but is instead an *inherent property of the
> underlying fabric of the universe itself*.

This is my belief. Intelligence IS a fundamental part of the universe.
Humans have a great deal more of it than most things, however. The
story behind this takes some exposition. God, to a member of the LDS
church is not the intelligence as you said, but *a* intelligence. We are
also intelligences, or spirits. We are, spiritually speaking, children of
God - he created us out of intelligence, creation meaning to organize.
Spirit/intelligence is also a type of matter, but finer than anything we
have made as a species can detect.

So humans have spirits, created by God out of intelligence. So does
everything, in fact, but only humans are like God.

There's a whole lot more that I could go into, but it's rather late. I don't
know how all of you will receive this, but I thought it was important to
say something :)

Just be gentle ripping this apart, ok?